Game's Night
by Lacey Cordelle
Summary: It's Wednesday night. Game's night. Scary, I know. Each week, Eddie, Mia, Lissa, Christian, Adrian, Dimitri and Rose get together to play the games we all remember from our youth. R&R, please!
1. Chapter 1: Would You Rather?

_*_ _In no way, shape or form do I own the rights to Vampire Academy or any of the characters* *On a side note, this is my first fan fic, please bare with me. I have a nasty habit of getting writers block as soon as I know I actually have a deadline, so I apologize in advance for any waits for further chapters.*  
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It was happening again. And it was scary.

No, it wasn't a Strigoi attack on the school. It wasn't field experience and it wasn't trials. Nobody was running away, and nobody was being captured and tortured. There was no evil mastermind after anyone.

Then what on Earth, you ask, could possibly scare me, Rose Hathaway, so much? It was Wednesday. Game night. The one night every week where the entire gang — consisting of Dimitri, Christian, Lissa, Adrian, Eddie, Mia and me — got together in one of our rooms and played games. Or at least, had the pretense of playing games. It often ended up in a large bickering match. I guess that's what you get when you group all those types of personalities together.

Tonight was _supposed_ to be a game of "Would You Rather," but I was willing to bet that wouldn't last very long.

Lissa had always wondered how I had gotten Dimitri to join in our mismatched group, but it had been easy, really. All I'd had to do was ask him to, and explain that playing kiddie games when you were older was a billion times more fun than when your _actually_ a kid. I think that's why there are those types of games.

I was brought out of my reverie when there was a knock at my door. Through the bond, I could tell that it was Lissa, come to get me to go to Christian's room. I let her in while I finished brushing my hair out from an impromptu practice with Dimitri. And by impromptu, I mean: I saw an opportunity I couldn't pass up when he walked passed and jumped on his back. And by practice, I mean: I clung to his back and put him in a choke hold, until he leaned over and slid me off.

When I realized that there was nothing more I could do to stall, I sighed. Lissa laughed and tugged on my sleeve. I let her drag me there, though my feet shuffled and I huffed about it, muttering quietly the entire way there about the person who'd thought this up and something about necks and wringing. Okay, maybe I wasn't muttering quietly so much as nearing a yell. I was getting dirty looks from people all the way down the hall.

I knew once I got in there that I would have a good time, but it was the principal. If I gave in too easily, I'd lose my bad-ass reputation.

Lissa opened the door and I slouched my way inside, seeing that my dawdling had made us the last ones there.

"Finally!" Christian exclaimed with his usual snark. I gave him a sickly sweet smile.

"Can we get on with this, please, then?" Mia asked, probably feeling just like I did. "What are we playing first tonight, anyway?"

"Would You Rather," Dimitri answered.

"With a twist," Adrian piped up.

"What's the twist?" I questioned.

"It's _strip_ Would You Rather!" Adrian replied happily.

Lissa frowned. "How does that work?"

"Every time you want to pass without answering, you take off a piece of clothing." Adrian smiled.

I raised an eyebrow. "Why would you want to skip a question? It's Would You Rather, not Truth or Dare."

"Fine," he cajoled. "You can go first." I sat down in the loose circle that seemed to form by itself, and he continued. "Rose, would you rather sleep with Christian, or with me?"

I felt my cheeks go red. "I'm not answering that."

"Then you gotta take off a piece of clothes." Christian smirked at my obvious discomfort.

I sighed and unlaced my boot, slipping it off. I was not off to a good start with this game. "There. Happy?"

The circle was filled with nods as I realized that now _I_ had to ask someone a question. "Adrian," I said, and he focused his attention on me. "Would you rather give up your cigarettes or your alcohol?"

He looked torn, as though he couldn't decide. He opened his mouth and closed it again before finally shaking his head in defeat. "I don't know."

I smiled at him knowingly and he grudgingly yanked off his shoe. Then he turned to Mia and said, "Would you rather be Moroi or dhampir?"

Mia frowned. "Can I say a little bit of both?" Adrian shook his head and she slipped off her shoe. That was when I realized just how quick a game this was going to be.

After two more turns we were back to me. I glared at Christian as he asked me his question. "Would you rather be playing this or Truth or Dare right now?"

"Truth or Dare," I answered truthfully. "At least then someone might give me a radical dare to do."

Christian looked put out that I'd actually answered as I turned to Dimitri. He hadn't had to answer anything yet, and I wanted to see just how uncomfortable I could make him.

"Dimitri, would you rather guard Lissa or Mia?" I asked. He shifted, his discomfort very obvious. He didn't want to dis either of the women, but he didn't want to take off his clothes. Finally, he bowed his head to watch what he was doing as he carefully unlaced his left combat boot.

I heard his muttered, "I didn't sign up for this," under his breath as he looked as Lissa. "Would you rather be an Ivashkov or a Taurus?" I sniggered. Of course he would go with something like that, something that she would have no trouble answering. He was too kind to try to make her uncomfortable. Now, one of the rest of us on the other hand, that was a whole different story.

"Ivashkov," she said, head held high.

"What's wrong with my mom's family?" Adrian asked. Okay, maybe Dimitri _wasn't_ above trying to make someone uncomfortable, it was just that Lissa wasn't his target.

"Nothing!" Lissa replied quickly. "I didn't mean it like that I just meant —"

"What did you mean?" he demanded. Lissa looked flustered. Or maybe Dimitri was finally starting to get into the spirit of this weekly bout of craziness and was warming up to the idea that the night wouldn't be complete until everyone was thoroughly uncomfortable.

"All right then," I interrupted. I wanted to stop them before they descended into a full-fledged argument. After that, the night would be gone to the wind, but it was too early for that yet, though we all knew it would happen eventually. "Next question. Lissa? Who do you wanna ask?"

"Adrian," she said. "Would you rather . . ."

I started to tune everyone out after that, trusting that I would hear if someone said my name.

I had expected the whole Strip-Would-You-Rather thing; I mean, it was Adrian we were talking about here. Every Wednesday, at least one game we played turned into Strip-something-or-other. It was actually kinda weird. I don't really know why we agree to it.

My eyes strayed to Dimitri as I heard him laugh. It was odd that our mismatched group had such a good time together, especially considering most of us didn't even like one another when we first met. Thinking back, I found it hard to believe that the first time I saw Dimitri, I thought he was a threat and had been prepared to fight him. Now, every time I see him, my heart does flutters and I can't help but think of the cabin.

". . . Rose?" Dimitri finished.

I shook myself. "Sorry, what?"

He shot me an exasperated glance. "Would you rather live in St. Peterborough with me and Lissa, or here with everyone?"

I frowned. Everybody in the room knew about his and my relationship, but no one else at the academy did. That was the problem. If we told, I'd be expelled, and relegated to paper duty for the rest of my life, and he would be put on a desk job at best, at worst fired and sent to Alaska or somewhere equally remote. And I'd been to Saint Peterborough. It was beautiful, and all of Dimitri's family would be close by.

No matter how into ruffling people he seemed to be tonight, Dimitri was too nice to make me choose between himself and Lissa. He knew that would just tear me apart, so he grouped them both together versus _all _of my friends.

Mia laughed when she realized I was actually giving the question serious consideration. I flushed and answered, "St. Peterborough. And I mean everyone in St. Peterborough. Because you know that if Lissa moves to Russia, Christian's going to follow her. Then Adrian would follow just for the hell of it, and Mia would come 'for the change in scenery.' Or at least that's what she'd say. Really, she'd just be following the rest of us. And naturally Eddie would come too, because he always feels as though he owes a debt to me and everyone else." I finished by crossing my arms over my chest and leaning back, feeling proud of myself.

"You know that doesn't count, right?" Christian said, a sneer on his face.

"Why?" I demanded.

"It wasn't one of the options. Therefore, it doesn't count," he proclaimed.

I glared at him, but didn't bother fighting him further. It wouldn't have gotten anywhere, and we could be using that time to get this game over with. I reached down and unlaced my other boot, taking it off and throwing it over my shoulder without ever once looking away — glaring away, really, but that didn't make sense when I said it to myself in my head — from Christian.

I paused, then stood up and went after the boot. They were my favorite pair; no way in hell was I going to run the risk of losing them!

I took a second and took stock of who was down to what. Dimitri had lost both shoes and socks. Lissa, because of how polite she was, had no shoes, no socks, and no shirt. For some reason _No shoes, No shirt, No service, _rings through my mind. Eddie had one shoe missing, and Mia had two bare feet and no shirt just like Lissa. Christian, not being afraid to hurt someone's feeling's, was only missing one shoe. Adrian was sitting on the floor in only his boxers, pouting.

I laughed. "You wanted to play Strip-Would-You-Rather, you get ganged up on."

He stuck his tongue out at me, and everyone laughed.

Christian looked at me. "You realize it's your turn, right?"

"Oh, ya!" I pursed my lips, then looked triumphantly at Adrian. "Mr. Ivashkov, I have a new twist for you. Whatever you decide between the two that you'd rather do, you have to do." I smiled slyly at him, already planning what I was going to make him do.

His eyes widened. "Um . . . Okay . . . I guess . . ." He looked like he really didn't want to do this. I didn't blame him.

"Alrighty then, on with it! Would you rather kiss Christian or Dimitri?"

Dimitri shot me a pained look that seemed to say _Why do you feel the need to do this to me?_

Adrian's eyes started bulging out of his head. "What? I don't want to do that!"

I smiled. "I thought you might say that." I looked pointedly at the only piece of clothing he had left on.

He shook his head. "Uh-uh. Not gonna happen! These are staying on! As much as I know that you want to see what's under here, not right now. Meet me after we all split up, and most certainly, I will oblige, but not with everyone else here."

"I had a feeling you'd say that too. In that case, not only do you lose, you have to kiss both of them!" I squealed, trying to contain my laughter and failing miserably.

All the girls laughed so hard we couldn't breath, while Christian, Adrian and Dimitri glowered at each other and me. Eddie looked sympathetic, but not like he was willing to step up and be savior, either.

"Come on, boys, pucker up!" I laughed, holding my sides to ensure my liver and other internal organs didn't spill out, since it felt like my skin was splitting.

"Threesome!" Mia cried. I laughed even harder, really starting to wonder if it was possible to die from laughing to much. Because I think I was.

All three of them flinched and leaned in as one, giving each other a three way peck on the lips, then immediately backing up and whipping their lips. I laughed even harder, if that were possible. I ended up falling over due to my uncontrollable laughing fit, my head landing in Dimitri's lap. He glared down at me, playfully of course — I think.

"I hate you," he said.

"Love you, too," I caroled, as soon as I could get in a breath.

Christian gained his feet in a dignified huff. "I'm leaving," he said, glaring around the room.

Lissa stood too, still laughing, and waved before following him out the door.

"We should go too," Dimitri told me, rising and dragging me up with him. I smiled and waved between racking laughter, as my amazingly hot personal Russian god dragged me back to my dorm. He'd taken to spending the night with me and slipping out at some point in the night so as not to get caught by Alberta or some other guardian.

I finally managed to stop laughing as he and I settled into my way-to-small-for-the-both-of-us single bed and I peacefully fell asleep with my head on his chest and his scent enveloping me.

In those moments of half wakefulness right before beloved sleep envelopes you, I realized something rather disturbing about myself.

I was looking forward to next Wednesday.

*_Hope you liked it! R & R! Hopefully I can get the next chapter up soon!*_


	2. Chapter 2: Truth or Dare?

*_You all know, I don't own these characters or anything, but my oh my do I wish I do! Dimitri, especially!*_

_*Also, a major shout-out to my friend Kasslyn, who might almost love Vampire Academy as much as I do. Emphasis on _almost_! :D*_

I allowed myself to mostly ignore everyone for Thursday. And Friday. And Saturday. Okay, so I was kinda caught up waiting for Wednesday to roll around again. But I wasn't about to tell that to anyone else.

When I woke up Wednesday morning, I was actually excited to get up and train with Dimitri. He'd left last night somewhere around three in the morning. I remember him pressing a kiss to my forehead, but not much more. Hey, what can I say? I'm a heavy sleeper. As long as I didn't accidently slap him or anything, all was good. Though I can't say for sure that I didn't. It's happened before. Like I said. Deep sleeper.

I hopped up out of bed and tugged on my favorite pair of jeans (they hugged my curves perfectly) and a black tank top, than tugged on and laced up my combat boots. I ignored the fact that I'd just have to change back out of my clothes in ten minutes or so for training.

My day wasn't nearly as robotic as the last six or so were. I was actually bouncing on my way to training. Well . . . more so than usual. Training's always the highlight of my day, no matter what else is going on. I mean, who wouldn't want to spend time with a super hot Russian god? The fact that he also happened to be _mine_ made it so much sweeter.

When I got to the gym, he was sprawled out on the mats, reading one of his westerns. I don't know how he kept finding more of those things! With how often I see him with a new one, I would have thought he had read them all already. In both English and Russian!

Right now, he was reading something titled _The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains_, his leather duster spread out behind him like wings. Even though I was sure he knew I was there, he didn't look up until he'd finished his page, put a bookmark in and closed the book.

"What are we doing today, Comrade?" I asked.

He met my eyes. "I was waiting for you to show up. No training today. They called a snow day."

I frowned. "What?" I hadn't noticed any snow on the way over. I walked over to the window and looked out. "Holy shit!" I exclaimed. There had to be a good three or four feet of white out there. "How did I miss that?" I wondered out loud. I guess I had kinda been in my own world on the way over here.

Dimitri chuckled and stood up. "I'm surprised we haven't had more before this. It _is _mid-December."

"True, I suppose. I'm just surprised they actually called a snow day. It's not like we really have to go anywhere or anything. The classrooms are, like, thirty feet from our dorms."

Dimitri shrugged. "Teacher housing was snowed in. Somehow, six feet of snow managed to build up right outside the door."

I laughed. "I wonder how that happened!" A certain group consisting of dhampirs and Moroi that I'd be seeing later popped into my head. Specifically, someone with dark hair and ice-blue eyes.

Dimitri laughed too, his eyes lighting up in a way that looked absolutely beautiful on him. Because we didn't have to train today, he had allowed his hair to be free of its usually ponytail, and it fell into his face in the most gorgeous way.

"So we have all day and nothing to do?" I asked. He nodded. "I think I can think of a thing or two to fill the time."

Dimitri leaned in and captured my lips, running his tongue along my bottom lip, gently asking for entrance. I complied instantly, lips parting to feel the smooth velvet run across the inside of my mouth. We had discussed once how looking into someone's eyes while being intimate was a major turn on, so the most I let my lids slide closed was halfway.

He put one hand on the small of my back and the other on the side of my face. My hands were under the curves of his firm buttocks. Not only do I quite like that area of him — the man worked out like the warrior that he is; might as well enjoy it —, it wasn't really like I could easily hold my arms many other places. The dude has a foot on me. My arms get tired. It gives me a perfect excuse to hold onto his butt.

Just as we were about to progress further (like, I was in the middle of pulling his shirt over his head!), there was a light knock on the door and Lissa came in hesitantly.

"Guys? Are you here? Oh, god, I'm sorry!" she cried, shielding her eyes from the sight with her forearm. I closed my eyes and sighed against Dimitri's lips before pulling away to face her. Dimitri shrugged his shirt back into place.

I offered Lissa up a smile. "What's up?"

She returned it. "I was wondering if you guys wanted to start game night a little earlier today. Maybe we can get in more than one."

"Sure, that sounds great!" I said, not faking my enthusiasm. Screw my bad-ass reputation. If anyone doubts me, I'll show them just how much of a bad-ass I am!

Her grin widened and she looked over my shoulder to Dimitri. "You in?"

I couldn't see him from where I stood in front of him, but I assumed he nodded, because she gave a little bounce and said, "Great! Come on, we're doing it in my room this time!" She skipped over to the door and beckoned us when we weren't walking fast enough. Then she turned and plunged out into the cold. Dimitri and I shared somewhat exasperated glances before following.

We happened to be the last ones there.

"Took you long enough," Adrian grumbled as we walked through the door. I blew him an air kiss.

"So, what we playing first today?" I asked cheerily.

Christian shrugged. "How about 'I Never . . .'? I read about it online. You go around the circle, and every person says one thing that's true to them, but everyone else that it's not true for has to drink a shot."

Adrian perked up. "Did someone say drink?"

"Wait a second . . . what? That didn't make any sense at all, just so you know," Mia said.

Christian rolled his eyes. "Alright, I'll give you an example. I could say 'I've never had breasts', because it's true. I have never had boobs. But all the girls in here would have to down a shot because you all have boobs. Dimitri, Eddie and Adrian are safe, though, because they haven't ever had breasts either. Got it?"

"Jeeze," Eddie said. "What a bad game to play with Adrian."

I laughed. "And, of course, he's going to supply the alcohol, I'm sure."

I wasn't the only one laughing now, as Adrian pulled a bottle of Russian vodka out of his coat, then added a bottle of fireball whiskey, and one of saki.

"Whoa! You're really pulling out the big guns, here," I said.

Dimitri spoke up now, for the first time since entering the room. "Maybe we should play this last, or at least near to it, so that everyone's not drunk whilst we're try to play other games."

"Ah, c'mon Comrade! Where's your sense of fun-ness?" I asked.

"Um, Rose, I don't think that's a word," Eddie said.

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Whatever. It's awesome and you know it."

"Uh, guys, getting back on topic, I think Dimitri's right. Definitely later, because it sounds like fun, but right now, why don't we play Truth or Dare?" Lissa asked.

"Sure!" Mia said.

Inside, I sniggered. I so ruled at this game! These guys had no idea what they were in for!

"Sounds. Like. Fun!" I said with an evil little grin. The other members of the group murmured their assent.

"Who's going to go first?" Adrian asked.

I was just about to say, _Me_, but Sparky beat me to the punch. "I will," he said, smiling at me cruelly. Oh, it is so on!

He continued to stare at me, so I was shocked when what came out of his mouth was, "Mia, truth or dare?"

"Truth," she said warily.

"Chicken," I muttered under my breath. She glared at me.

"Who in this room is your favorite?" he asked.

"Eddie," she replied shamelessly.

"Aw, Mia, I'm hurt," Adrian said, clutching his heart dramatically. I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever, Adrian. Truth or dare?" she replied.

"Dare," he answered fearlessly.

"Oh, Adrian, you don't have to show off for me. I know you really want to say truth and not have to do anything drastic. I'm okay with that, as long as you can live with chickening out," I told him, snickering.

"Hey," Mia cried. "I chose truth!"

I sent my eyes heavenward. "Yeah, but you're a girl. It's not called chickening out when you're a girl. It's called _expected_," I explained, meeting her eyes.

"Alright then, truth. I actually wanted to do a dare, but you seem like you want to know so much more about the mystical workings behind all of this," — he gestured to all of himself — "that I just have to give you what you want. I'll do a dare next time.

"Chicken," I said, ensuring it was loud enough for everyone to hear this time.

"Adrian, have you ever fallen in love?" Mia asked, a look of exasperation on her petit face.

He met my eyes and held them while answering. "Yes." I shifted uncomfortably, trying to force down the blush that threatened my cheeks. I would have thought I'd done it, too, if it weren't for Christian snickering to himself.

"Alright," I said to break the tension that wanted to choke everyone in the room. Or maybe it was just me the air decided to shy away from. "Your go, Adrian."

I thought he was going to pick me. I really did. I mean, he was looking right at me. However, when he opened his mouth, the name that came out was —

"Dimitri, truth or dare?"

"Truth," he answered confidently. When Mia or Adrian chose it, they were chicken. When Dimitri chose the same thing, he was secure in his masculinity. Yeah, I know, I'm a hypocrite. I'm okay with it.

"Hm . . ." He paused, pretending to thing, trying to draw out the suspense, probably. The only thing he succeeded in was pissing me off.

"For the love of God, spit it out!" I told him.

"Fine, Miss Bossy. Have you and Rose ever slept together?"

Immediately, Dimitri's face went red. He looked at me with eyes pleading not to have to answer this question. I shrugged and gestured for him to go ahead.

Admittedly, I felt bad for him. Dimitri was very quiet, especially where our relationship/sex life was concerned. Asking him this was almost like asking him to take his pants off in public. I didn't have a problem with anyone knowing; I had already somehow managed to get a reputation as somewhat of a slut (wonder how that happened? I mean, really, I was a virgin until Dimitri came along). It didn't bother me. But his welfare, on the other hand, was a completely different matter.

Finally, he nodded, looking down. "Yes," he confirmed, just in case anyone had missed the memo.

There was a collective "Oooo," from around the room before Christian spoke up."

"Is that really so hard to believe? Hell, I wouldn't have thought that was actually _news_ to anyone here. I mean, it _is_ Rose we're talking about here." He shrugged.

I rolled my eyes, picking up a throw pillow and using it as the name suggested. I mean, _throw_ pillow? It was just begging to be thrown at Christian, who was just begging to have me throw something at him. I didn't even aim, but I still hit him in the chest. He glared at me and I shot him an air kiss.

"_Anyway_," Eddie said, "on with the game."

"Lissa, truth or dare?" Dimitri asked.

"Truth," she said.

"Use one word to sum up everyone in the room."

She chuckled. "Simple. _Unlikely_." I laughed, and after a moment, everyone else followed suit.

When we finally calmed down, she looked around the room. "Adrian, truth or dare?"

"Dare," he said, then looked at me. "Told you I'd do a dare next time!" I rolled my eyes.

Lissa smiled sweetly. Almost too sweetly. "I dare you to strip down to your underwear and sit on Christian's lap for the next three turns." Christian whipped his head around to look at her.

"Why?" he asked. "You just couldn't pick someone else?"

She shrugged. "You're the safest person here. Dimitri, Rose and Eddie all could kill me if they really wanted to, and Adrian if the one being dared. Plus, he'd probably squish Mia, so . . ."

Christian continued grumbling while Adrian tugged off his shirt and pants. They both sighed as Adrian sat on Christian's lap.

"Fine, then," Adrian said. "My turn. Rose, truth or dare?"

I snorted. "You even have to ask? Dare."

"I dare you to switch boyfriends with Lissa for a week," he said triumphantly. Oh, no he didn't! Not only did he _not _give me some super fun, radical thing to do, but he was forcing me to hang out with _Christian _for a week!

"Uh, uh. No way! You wanna tell me to give Stan a lap dance or something, I'll do it with pleasure — well, not with pleasure, but with more pleasure than this. But forcing me to spend time with _him!_" I pointed at Christian. "That is uncalled for, man."

"Are you saying you forfeit?" Adrian said.

"No." I pouted. "I'm just saying it's not fair."

"Um, excuse me Adrian, but what about _us?_" Lissa asked, gesturing to herself and Dimitri.

Adrian shrugged. "I guess you're just going to have to deal."

She just stared at him and said nothing.

"Fine, fine. You can see you're real boyfriend for a maximum of two hours each day. What you do with that time is _not _something I want to visualize," he murmured.

"How will you know we actually do it?" Christian asked.

"You just _had_ to say it out loud!" I muttered to him.

Adrian paused, thinking. Guess he hadn't thought of that. Damn you, Christian! "I guess you're going to have to have someone else with you 24/7. Or more like 22/7, because you get those two hours with you real boyfriend slash girlfriends . . ."

"I hope you realize you make absolutely no sense, Adrian. Who the hell is going to want to do that?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Eddie can do it for one pair."

"Meh-huh!" Eddie cried. I shot him a questioning look, wondering what the hell meh-huh was. It _seemed _to be just a sound of disagreement and despair, but you never know.

"Just think of it like field experience. If anyone attacks the Moroi of the pair, you'll be there to save them. Not that I really think anyone's going to attack, but . . ."

Eddie sighed, but conceded. I think it was more for lack of anything better to do than for the chances of gaining some guardian-like experiences.

"That still leaves one pair without someone watching them," Mia pointed out.

"Are you offering to fill the position?" Adrian asked her.

She shrugged. "Sure. I have nothing to do this week."

"Then it's settled!"

"Come on, Adrian, really? You have to go for the psychological torment of four people instead of the physical torment of one?" Lissa pleaded, though what she was pleading _for _was a mystery. I mean, she got to spend time with the hottest man in the universe, and I had to spend time with _Christian. _Then again, she usually spent time with him voluntarily, so maybe she was a little messed up in the head.

"Anyone want to play something else for now? Just for a while, so we have a chance to cool off before having to do any radical stunts? We'll come back to it, off course. I mean, what's a party day without playing Truth or Dare at least twice?" Christian asked.

Around the room were nods of agreement. I would never say it aloud, but I thought it was a good idea. If we kept going, I'd probably end up daring someone to cut off their arm or let a Moroi drink from them. Stopping for now was definitely in everyone's best interest.

"Alright then, what does everyone want to play next?" Mia asked.

"How about we play I Never now?" Dimitri suggested. I jumped. I'd actually forgotten he was there, he hadn't spoken in so long.

"Sounds good, Comrade." I looked around the room. "Adrian, where's the booze?"

"Ummm . . ." he said, looking at the empty bottle of whiskey in his hands.

"My God, Adrian!" I exclaimed. "How are you still upright?"

"Practice?"

I shook my head. "What are we going to use now?"

"It's okay," Lissa said, standing. "I have a couple of two liter bottles of Coke in my fridge."

"Oh, yeah? You just happened to have a bunch of two liter bottles of Coke in your fridge?" I questioned.

She flushed and went to get them.

"Alright, guys," I said. "Start thinking up the weird things you've never done!"

_*If anyone can think of any good I Never's/Truth or Dare's/game ideas, send them to me in a review! I'm running really low! I need at least 5 more I Never's to make a complete game! Thanks! ;)*_


	3. Chapter 3: I Never

_ *Still don't own these awesome characters, or anything else of the Vampire Academy enterprise. Sigh*  
>*Shout out here goes to lastsacrifice, for being the only one to actually send an idea for the games to me. Come on, people!*<em>

I don't know what exactly Lissa did in the kitchen, but she sure took her sweet time. She stayed in there for what felt like a good ten minutes. At least it gave us lots of time to come up with good questions. Err — statements. Whatever.

When she finally returned, she was carrying four full two liter bottles of Coke. Wow. Maybe that was why she took so long. All of the bottles were precariously balanced on top of one another. It was almost like a good acrobatics act from the circus. I bit my tongue to keep from laughing and embarrassing her.

I was about to get up and go help her when she caught her toe on the rug. She nearly tripped and lost everything, but managed to catch herself before face-planting. Somehow, she was still able to look graceful as she set the bottles in the middle of the circle. Then she turned on her heel and headed back into the kitchen.

This time, I got up and followed here. Seven people, twenty shot glasses each? No way she could carry that when four big bottles were too much for her.

I pushed into the kitchen to see that all 140 shot glasses were set out on the counter. Why she had at least 140 shot glasses, I didn't know, and I didn't think I really wanted to. Even though we had the bond, there were some things she didn't want me to know, and I was fine with not knowing.

I gathered half of them in my arms and headed back out. I dropped them, trying carefully not to smash any. I let out a breath of relief when they were all still whole and out of my arms. Lissa followed soon after, and before long, everyone was seated in the circle again with twenty shots of Coke in front of them.

I rolled my shoulders back to ease out a kink and asked, "Who wants to go first?"

Everyone looked at each other, waiting for someone else to say something. Chickens.

"Fine, I'll do it," I said, rolling my eyes this time. "I've never healed someone."

Adrian and Lissa looked at one another, then both downed one of their shots. At least this way I couldn't be the first one to drink.

I looked to my left, where Eddie sat. "Your turn," I informed him.

"I've never slept with my teacher," he said, smirking at me.

I rolled my eyes again and drank. No one was surprised by that. Everyone was surprised, however, when Adrian also drank. When Lissa looked at him questioningly, he shrugged. "What can I say?"

Christian chuckled. "Yeah, really. We _all_ know he's a man-whore." Most everyone else tried to contain their laughter. I made no such effort, laughing so hard I held my side for fear of my internal organs falling out.

When I finally managed to get a handle on myself again, I was lying on my side with everyone looking down at me. I cleared my throat. "Sorry."

We all sat back, and Lissa took her turn next. "I've never cheated on a test."

I sighed and took another shot. Adrian, Christian and Mia did the same. Lissa and Dimitri were unsurprising, but I was a little shocked about Eddie. I mean, I knew the dude wasn't as bad-ass as I was, but I didn't think he was all that pure either.

I shrugged and let it go as Christian said, "I've never broken a bone."

I huffed and drank again. So did the other dhampirs. No surprise there. Mia did as well. Also not news. Shortly after Lissa's and my return to the Academy, I'd punched her at a dance and broken her nose. Nothing unexpected with this statement.

Adrian was sitting on Christian's left, so his turn was next. "I've never died," he said, looking straight at me. I glared at him and drank.

"I've never set someone on fire," Mia said. I exhaled in relief. Finally something I _hadn't_ done!

Christian drank — he was the only one, thank god —, and Dimitri, sitting on my right, went. "I've never cheated on my lover," he said, looking at me. I smiled and gave him a kiss. I also hadn't done this, thank anyone who was listening! I can't imagine what I'd do if I had to admit to cheating on someone with Dimitri in the room.

Adrian and Mia drank. Mia I knew about; back when she and Lissa (and I by default) had been enemies, Mia had slept with Ralph and Jesse (two of the most annoying Moroi I've ever met) to get them to say that they'd both slept with me and drank my blood. She'd been dating Lissa old boyfriend Aaron at the time. And, well, as Christian had stated, Adrian is a man-whore.

My turn again! "I've never gone commando!" I said, giggling. Rolling his eyes, Adrian drank, along with Christian, Eddie, Mia (huh?) and Dimitri (double huh?).

I turned to Dimitri. "Care to share with the rest of the class, Comrade?"

He flushed and shrugged, looking down. "It gets hot sometimes," he admitted.

I bit my lip to keep from laughing, and looked at Mia instead. She was red, too, but still defiantly met my eyes. "What? You've never done that on a date?" I hadn't, but I made a mental note for the future. Imagine the fun Dimitri and I could have if I going commando, wearing a dress . . . Maybe I shouldn't think about that in a room with other people. And not while sitting next to him.

My face felt suspiciously hot as Eddie took his next turn. "I've never been to Russia."

Dimitri and I high-fived as we drank. I thought of St. Peterborough, and how beautiful it had been. I would love to go back there.

"I've never had sex in the woods," Lissa proclaimed. Surprise, surprise. Lissa won the purity contest. Again. I sighed and drank, and so did Dimitri, though he tried to sneak it. Not like it wasn't obvious he had. He was the only guy I've ever slept with, so if I have, he has to have.

"I've never had fantasies about Dimitri," Christian said.

"Good," I said, swallowing my Coke. "If you had, I'd be worried. Not that you're any competition to me."

I couldn't help but notice that Lissa and Mia both downed a glass as well. I also saw Adrian hesitate, as if trying to determine if_ that was really a fantasy or just a really weird dream_, then deciding _no, it was just a really, extremely odd dream. No, not dream. Nightmare!_

"I've never . . . taken a shower with someone else and wished I had a stool because of the height difference," Adrian said.

I sighed, trying to look as dejected as possible, and drank. Dimitri looked at me questioningly. I shrugged. "There's a foot between us. I'm always staring at your chest. And, while it is quite a lovely chest, I sometimes want to look into your extremely beautiful eyes." Funny, it didn't sound quite so sappy inside my head. But once the words were out, I couldn't take them back. And, from the loving look in his gorgeous eyes right now, I didn't really want to.

"Moment over?" Mia asked. "Cool. I've never kissed a girl."

All the guys drank, unsurprisingly enough.

"I've never drunk dhampir blood," Dimitri said. I was pretty sure he was running out of ideas rather quickly.

Liss was the only one to drink this time, which was probably a good thing

And then it was my turn again! "I've never lied to my friends about a sexual experiance."

Adrian looked at me and drank, rolling his eyes.

"I've never been spanked," Eddie said. This time when I drank, I tried to hide it, but there really was no way to hide taking a drink from a shot glass. Dimitri had the same problem. We both looked at each other, flushed, and downed them at the same time. No one was overly surprised when Adrian drank one too.

"I've never gotten in a fist fight," Lissa said. Every single person whose name was not Vasilisa Dragomir drank.

"I've never gotten hard to explain bruises." Christian smirked, looking in my direction. I'd give him some hard to explain bruises, if he really wanted them. I mean, I had to pretend to be his girlfriend for a week, so . . . Nah, maybe not. Dimitri might not like it so much if I did.

Both Dimitri and I drank, both still flushing furiously. I might not have a problem with other people knowing about my sex life, but even I had my limits.

"Anybody else starting to really not like this game?" I asked.

"You're only saying that 'cause you're losing," Christian said snidely. I glared at him.

"Anyway, I've never faked an orgasm," Adrian admitted fearlessly.

"No, I most certainly have not," I said, winking at Dimitri. He went even more red than he already was.

Lissa, Mia and Eddie all drank.

"What?" Christian said, looking at Lissa.

She shrugged. "I was tired."

I shook my head at her. "You couldn't have just said it happened with Aaron?"

She paused. "I didn't think of that," she replied flatly. I laughed.

"I've never had someone drink my blood," Mia told us when it was clear nothing else was going to be said.

I grumbled while swallowing another shot of Coke — quite the feat, I'll tell you —, and saw Eddie and Dimitri throw back their own. None of this was a secret to anyone. Dimitri and Eddie had both had their blood sucked by strigoi, and I'd been Lissa's primary (or rather, only) blood source for the two years we'd been away from school.

"I've never had sex in a church," Dimitri declared, though not as loudly as Adrian would have. Lissa and Christian drank, obviously, but so did Adrian. I guess Christian was more right than any of us thought; Adrian really_ is_ a man-whore.

"I've never been punched by me," I said, though that was kinda obvious. Of course_ I_ hadn't been punched by me, but a lot of others in this room had. Dimitri, Eddie, Mia and Christian all drank. Dimitri and Eddie had been in training, of course. I've already mentioned how I punched Mia in the nose. But I couldn't remember when I punched Christian. Ah, whatever. It was unsurprising, anyway. You piss off Rose Hathaway, you get hit. Simple as that. You'd think people would learn. Guess not.

"I've never seen a psihound," Eddie informed us.

I shuddered. "And you don't ever want to," I told him before downing the shot. Lissa, Christian and Dimitri drank too.

"I've never had fantasies about Rose," Lissa said after she swallowed. Dimitri, Eddie and Adrian all drank. Adrian and Dimitri I had expected (I mean, duh!), but Eddie was news to me. I shrugged mentally. Who knows? It could have been a long time ago, for all I knew.

"I've never seen Titanic," Christian said. Lissa and Dimitri drank. I looked at the handsome Russian, but he just shrugged.

"I've never snuck out," Adrian said.

"I find that hard to believe," I said, and downed a shot. So did everyone else, excluding Adrian.

"Am I the only one who hasn't done this?" he asked. Everyone looked at each other and nodded. "Wow. I'm boring."

I laughed. "You don't say?"

"Shut up," he told me. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"I find it hard to believe that _Dimitri_ has actually snuck out," Mia commented.

I flushed, and so did he. The truth was that he had snuck out to meet me, to spend time with me. I suppose he could also be counting how he sneaks out every night from my room, but I wouldn't. Guess that just shows the difference between him and me.

Christian looked between the two of us. "I don't want to know," he said, shaking his head.

"_Anyway_, I've never dated Rose," Mia said, getting back to the game. Dimitri and Adrian drank.

"I've never used compulsion," Dimitri said, returning to his normal, conservative self. All the Moroi drank.

Dimitri frowned and looked down at his six remaining shots, then looked around the room. I had seven shots left, and so did Adrian. Mia and Christian both had ten shots left, and Lissa had eleven. Eddie was winning, having twelve remaining shot glasses full.

"How am I losing?" Dimitri asked.

I chuckled. "Guess you're more interesting than everybody thought, Comrade!" He rolled his eyes.

"Oh, it's my turn, right? I've never played this game before now," I said. Dimitri, Eddie, Adrian, Christian and Mia drank, which meant Dimitri was still losing. Least it wasn't me. And at least I wasn't tied with Adrian anymore.

"I've never smoked a cigarette," Eddie said. Adrian drank.

"I've never killed something," Lissa said. Eddie, Christian, Dimitri and I all drank. Christian had helped me kill strigoi during the attack on the academy, and it was no surprise that all the dhampirs had killed something.

"Does killing a bottle of liquor count?" Adrian asked. Lissa rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"I've never read _Harry Potter_," Christian said. Everyone except he, Adrian and I drank.

I looked at Dimitri. "Really, Comrade?" I asked. "I thought you only read Westerns."

He shrugged. "Sometimes you have to branch out a little," he responded.

"And we _all_ know why Adrian hasn't read it," Lissa said, laughing. After a second, we all joined in, Adrian excluded. He put on a look of mock-hurt.

"How could you be so heartless?" he asked. "I've never thrown a punch. And you're all lucky for that. With the way you treat me . . ." He laughed. Everybody else drank. Lissa might have been surprising if she hadn't had to fight off Avery.

"I've never had a bond-mate," Mia said. I rolled my eyes as Lissa and I took a shot.

"I've never been born in America," Dimitri said, smiling smugly. I groaned as I took my drink, along with everyone else.

"I've never dated Christian," I said, and Lissa drank, smiling at her boyfriend. I knew she was happy to see that she was the only one to drink. Those two both had so many doubts about each other, it wasn't funny.

"I've never worn pink," Eddie said. Lissa, Mia, Dimitri and I drank.

Wait — I did a double take. _Dimitri_ drank? I looked at him, my eyebrows trying to get together with my hairline. I might not be able to raise one eyebrow, but I could most certainly raise both.

He shrugged. "I'm secure in my skin; it's not a bad color."

Adrian hid a laugh with a cough, but it didn't fool anyone. I glared at him.

"Looks like Dimitri lost!" Lissa exclaimed. We all looked toward Dimitri's empty glasses, shocked when we realized she was right.

"Wow," I said. "I guess we have to decide what to play next."

_*I just realized there's an inaccuracy in here. Technically, Dimitri has drunk dhampir blood too, when he was strigoi. I forgot when I wrote that part that he fed of Rose, and when I realized it, I was at the end, when he only had one shot left, and couldn't very well fix it without rewriting at least half of the chapter. Sorry about that!*_

_*Guys! I really need you to help me think up some new games! I'm out of ideas, after the next one.*_

_ *Hypothetically, this story line could go on forever, but I do need to write some other stories at some point too, so I don't know how much longer this will go on, especially if I can't think of anything to do with this. I've got a couple of thoughts, but I really want to get one other thing posted, my _Dimitri's POV_ of the series. I'm going to keep posting for this periodically, but I can't promise it'll be as often as it has been . . . Maybe if I get enough reviews. Please read my other stories, though!*_


	4. Chapter 4: Hide and Seek!

*_Shout out to VAlover21! Best review for chapter 3! I'm using your idea here, so . . . Yay!*_

_*As sad as it is, I don't own Vampire Academy.*_

"How about we play Hide-and-Seek?" Eddie suggested.

"In the snow?" Lissa asked, looking at him askance.

"Sure! That's what makes it harder!" he responded.

"Sounds fun to me," I said, shrugging. It _might _have had something to do with the fact that I was pretty sure I could win, especially when I said, "But let's add a twist."

Dimitri groaned. "This isn't going to be like Adrian's Strip-Would-You-Rather 'twist', is it?" he wondered, putting air quotes around the word "twist".

"Nah, much more fun than that. Besides, not even _I _would take off my clothing in the snow."

Adrian gave me a look of mock-hurt. "That's harsh, little dhampir. Though your boyfriend's comment was even more painful, if that's possible."

I snorted. Yep, that's me, dignified as always. Not. "Whatever. Do you guys wanna hear the twist or not?"

"Go for it," Christian told me.

"Cool. Here it is: Hide-And-Seek in pairs. That means everyone hides in pairs and two people are it. And, instead of just having to find everyone, you also have to tag them!"

Everyone turned to me with raised eyebrows.

"You realize we have seven people, right?" Mia pointed out.

I frowned. "Oops. Okay, so someone will have to be by themselves."

"So, how do we decide?" Lissa asked.

I frowned harder. "I have no idea. Any thoughts, anyone?"

Mia piped up. "How about we get seven marbles or something, and three will have another of the same color, and one will be by itself? We could put them all into a paper bag or something, so no one can purposely pick the same color as someone else." She gave a pointed look in Adrian's direction.

He made an innocent face, batting his eyelashes. I rolled my eyes.

"Sounds like it'll work, but where are we going to get the marbles?" Dimitri said.

Mia shrugged. "I came up with the idea. My job here is done."

"They don't have to be marbles, do they?" Eddie asked.

Mia shook her head.

Eddie gestured to the caps of the Coke bottles. "Why don't we throw in two of those?"

I nodded. "Good idea."

Lissa stood and went to find a hat to throw them in. She came back to the circle with a fedora — why does she have a fedora? I've never, ever seen her wear one before . . . — and threw two of the caps in.

"We still need two more pairs, and one odd thing."

I frowned again and stood up, walked to Lissa's desk and pulled open the drawer. Inside, everything was neatly organized, pencils side by side. Next to those pencils was what I was looking for. Six never-been-used pink erasers. I grabbed two of them and threw them in the fedora. "That gives us two pairs. Now we just need one more pair and an odd one."

Adrian reached into his pocket and pulled out two dice. I shot him a look, and he shrugged. "They're my lucky dice."

I laughed, but it came out sounding a little harsh. "So not only do you drink and smoke, but you gamble from time to time too?"

He returned my gaze shamelessly. "Yeah," he said with another shrug.

"Okay then. One more thing."

"I got it!" Mia said, reaching into her hair and pulling out a bobby pin.

"Perfect. Who's gonna choose first?" Christian asked.

"I will," I said at the same time that Eddie said, "Sure, why not."

We looked at each other. "Rock, paper, scissors?" I suggested. He nodded.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" we cried.

I have the perfect technique for this game. People will most often choose the thing that was the last influence on their mind. In this case, that would be scissors. So all I had to do was throw rock when he undoubtably threw scissors.

It worked. As I'd expected ('cause I'm just so awesome!) Eddie went with scissors because it was the last thing he'd heard, and I threw rock, because I was expecting his scissors.

"My rock crushes your scissors! I get to pick first!" I crowed.

I reached in and pulled out one of the bottle caps. I glanced around and realized I still had no clue who I'd be paired with, since no one else had picked yet. I gave the hat to Eddie.

We waited in suspense as he swished his hand around in the fedora. When he pulled his hand out, it held an eraser.

I couldn't decide whether or not I was happy that he hadn't gotten the same thing as me. I suppose I was, because it meant there was still the possibility that I could be with Dimitri or Lissa. Of course, there was still the possibility that I could be paired up with Adrian or Christian or Mia.

I didn't hate any of them, not really. Sure, Christian bugged me, and we razed each other all the time, but, even though I wouldn't admit it to anyone, I kinda liked him, deep down. _Very_ deep down. He kinda reminded me of myself.

And Mia . . . We'd become sort-of friends, but . . . Every now and then, when I looked at her, I couldn't help seeing the girl who'd tried to ruin Lissa and me.

And I had nothing against Adrian, except that I knew he would be crude and say a lot of double entendre's that would be meant to piss Dimitri — and me — off.

Mia dug into the hat next, and came out with . . . the bobby pin. I breathed a mental sigh of relief. Mia, on the other hand, wasn't so happy about it.

"What! That is so not fair! I was the one to come up with the idea; I shouldn't have to be the one by myself!"

Adrian took the hat next and reached in. He ended up with the other eraser, the match to Eddie's. Well then, there was one complete pair.

Adrian passed it on to Christian. When he grabbed his object, it was one of Adrian's lucky dice. Finally I relaxed. I _couldn't_ have anyone but Lissa or Dimitri as my partner now.

Lissa delved into her fedora and pulled out the other die. I smiled and met Dimitri's eyes. That meant we were together! (_*A/N: I didn't purposely put any of them together; I actually put some stuff in a hat and pulled it out one at a time as I wrote it in the story!*_)

Dimitri reached in and pulled out the other bottle top, for no real reason, since there really wasn't a question as to who he was with anymore.

"So there we have it. The teams." I looked at Lissa. I nodded at her. She returned it. "I just wanted everyone to know," I continued, "that I —_ one, two, three, not it!_" I caroled.

"_Not it!_" Lissa screeched.

Everyone was stunned for a moment, before Eddie cried, "Not it!"

Adrian followed, then Dimitri caught on. Christian was second-to-last to say it, making Mia the slowest.

She frowned. "Great. First I'm by myself, and now I'm It. That sucks."

I shrugged. "I said not it. You didn't catch on fast enough. You're It. And it was just by luck of the draw that you're the one by yourself."

She rolled her eyes, but didn't complain any more when everyone stood and headed downstairs.

We all had to go back to our own rooms in order to bundle up. We were going to be playing in the snow. I didn't really want to get frostbite or hypothermia or something.

Dimitri and I walked back to my dorm hand in hand. When we got there, I dug through my closet. I wasn't the cleanest of people, but I tried to keep my stuff organized.

He hovered behind me as I looked for my winter coat. I found it quickly, but pursed my lips when I realized what it was covering.

I glanced back at him. I didn't think he'd be willing to leave. That'd just pique his interest. Then again, so would the jewelry box. I didn't have much jewelry. The box only held one thing.

He noticed me looking at him. "Hm?"

I thought quickly, searching for something I could say to explain my studying him. "Do you think we should wear snow pants?" I blurted. It was the first thing that came to mind that didn't sound completely weird.

He raised an eyebrow. "Do you even own any snow pants?"

I froze. "Um, no."

He raised the other eyebrow. "Then why are you asking?"

"I have no idea."

He laughed, and I cherished the sound, even though it was only there because I was hiding something from him.

"What are _you _going to wear? And don't say that your duster is going to be enough!" I said.

He smiled. "I'll be fine. Don't worry about me, Roza. I'm used to the cold. Grew up in Siberia, remember?" He winked at me. "The arctic wasteland?"

I laughed. It was actually a very beautiful place, not all snow. Well, maybe in the winter, but I hadn't been there then.

A minute or two passed in silence. I was still staring at him, and he stared back until he finally said, "Are you going to get your coat or what?"

I shook myself, and reached in to grab it. There wasn't much I could do to prevent him from seeing the box.

I lifted the coat and tried not to flinch as his attention zeroed in on it. He frowned, reaching around me to pick it up.

"I've never seen you wear jewelry before."

I couldn't hold back my flinch this time. That wasn't entirely true.

He lifted the lid. When he saw what lay there, nestled in the black velvet, he froze, going as still as a statue. I wasn't sure he was even breathing any longer.

Inside the box was a necklace. A glittering diamond rose on a gold chain. Under it was the note, which I don't know why I kept.

_Rose — _

_I'm very happy to see you didn't suffer any serious_

_injuries from your fall. Truly, it_ _is a miracle. You lead a _

_charmed life, and Vasilisa is lucky to have you. _

I looked down, gazing at my feet. Dimitri was careful not to touch the necklace, instead tracing his finger around it.

"You kept it," he said, though he was so breathless I almost didn't catch what he said.

I nodded. "I went out and found it, once we saved Lissa."

"Why?" he asked, and his expression was troubled.

I didn't have an answer for that.

I was saved from having to think of something when Lissa knocked on the door. "Come on, guys! Let's go! If you're not out here in sixty seconds, I'm coming in, and I don't want to be scarred for life by what I see!"

She startled me even as she saved me from having to respond. I jumped, grabbing Dimitri's shoulder and looking at the door. I could tell I'd startled him when a sudden wave of lust hit me. He'd bumped the necklace

It showed my new found self-control that I managed to pull my hand off his shoulder. I met his eyes, and their brown depths were filled with heat and lust. It formed a ball of heat in the middle of my stomach. I purposefully kept my eyes _above _the waistline of his jeans.

It was interesting to know that the lust charm was still in effect. However, now was not the time to think about it.

I reach under the box and grabbed it from underneath. I gently tugged it out of his grip, and he let me.

When the charmed metal left his grip, his gaze lost some of its intensity, but not the heat. He took the box and set it aside, then took me into his arms and kissed me. I was just about to let go and lose myself in that kiss, let him lead me to the bed, when I heard Lissa call from outside, "Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty! I'm coming in!"

Dimitri pulled away and pressed his forehead to my shoulder. I watched Lissa come in, a hand pressed over her eyes, her other hand reaching ahead of her to keep her from walking into things.

I tried to hold back my giggle, but failed. Lissa cringed, not knowing that I was giggling at _her_, not something Dimitri was doing.

"It's safe, Liss," I said as Dimitri straightened up. We turned to face her together, and I slipped on my coat and winter boots.

"We're gonna meet in five minutes — well, more like three or four now — back in my room. Don't be late!" She smiled and skipped out the door.

"Really?" I muttered. "_That's _what she came here for? She couldn't just shoot me a message through the bond?"

He shrugged, then gestured to the door. "Come on, we better get going. I've still gotta grab my better boots."

We trudged out across the snowy landscape. As we walked, I noticed something that was going to be a problem with this game. The footprints. They would give us away wherever we went.

I pondered this as we walked, wondering what we could do about that. I couldn't think of anything.

Dimitri glanced at me. "What's on your mind?"

"Hm?"

"You look like you're thinking about something intently. And with you, that's never good."

"Ha ha. Very funny. I was just wondering what we can do to hide the footprints," I said, frowning.

He pursed his lips in thought. "We could walk to the forest and then climb a tree, then jump from tree to tree."

I raised my eyebrows. It was actually a pretty good idea. Not that he didn't usually have good ideas, but . . . Thank God I wasn't saying this out loud. I would have dug myself into such a big hole.

I nodded. "That'll work."

He gave me a half-smile and unlocked the door to his room. We found his boots quickly and met the others in Lissa's room. Naturally, we were the last ones there. We weren't late though, for once.

"Alright," Lissa said, giving a little bounce. Jeeze, she must be really excited. "Anyone have to pee or anything? It's probably a good idea to go now, rather than wait and have to go when your in your hiding spot."

I shrugged. "I'll go."

Dimitri nodded. "I should probably go to."

I grabbed his hand and started toward the bathroom door, winking at him when he shot me a questioning look.

I shut the door behind me. Dimitri glanced to either side.

"Why are we in here together?" he asked.

"It's not a big deal, is it, Comrade? I mean, it's not like we've never seen each other's _private parts_." I whispered the last part. "What's the big deal?"

He raised an eyebrow, then reached out and touched my arm.

"What?" I asked.

"Just making sure you're still corporeal. And making sure that you're still, you know, _you_."

"What do you mean?" I asked, mock-hurt coloring my tone.

"You just seem . . . different."

"How?"

"You seem like you're . . . I don't know, really . . . _excited_," he said.

I shrugged. "So?"

He returned my shrug. "No reason. Just noticing."

We both finished up in the bathroom, and when we came out, everyone else was ready to go.

"Alright then Mia. Give us a five minute head start," Lissa said. Mia nodded.

"Good. Ready, set, _go!_" I cried, and leapt out the door.

Dimitri hadn't come with me when I'd bolted out of the room, so I ended up waiting until everyone else had left anyway. Then he strolled casually out of the room, and headed straight for the window. I frowned when he opened it and proceeded to climb out.

I didn't know this dorm as well as I knew my own, so I didn't know that there was a tree right outside the window that we could climb in and use to jump to the roof of one of the other Moroi dorms.

I raced to the window, sure I was going to see Dimitri's body splatted on the ground four stories below. Instead, I saw him sitting in the tree waiting for me.

"Oh," I said, a little dumbfounded, before crawling out to join him.

I made it into the tree without any trouble. I watched as he climbed through the tree, easily as if he did it every day, through to the other side. From there, he hauled himself up to two feet and inched his way out as far as he could get. When the tree branch started to bow beneath his weight, he leaped, grabbing the somewhat sturdier limb above and _swinging_. He managed to clear the six foot gap to the roof, arching his back and landing in a crouch.

I inched toward the edge of the tree that he had just vacated. My eyes widened as I looked down. There was a good forty foot drop, and I had to make it six feet to get to the rooftop, of I'd fall. That's longer than I am tall!

"Come on, Roza!" Dimitri called. "We don't have long! Just do it!" He leaned over the edge of the roof, reaching out to me. "I'll catch you, just go!"

I took a deep breath and repeated exactly what he had done. As I let go of the branch above, I cringed, hoping my slighter weight would be enough to carry me across the gap.

I felt my feet touch the roof, and was about to let out the breath I'd been holding when I realized I was only holding on with my toes. And then I slipped.

I held back a shriek by sheer force of will, not wanting Mia or anyone else to hear me. Then again, if I was falling to my death, it probably wouldn't matter.

I was sure I was going to be splatter on the ground. I was falling — feet first, thank God, but still falling to my death.

And then I wasn't. My shoulders jerked, almost being pulled out of their sockets, and I opened my eyes to see Dimitri's panicked face. He grunted as he pulled me up over the edge of the roof. When he finally deemed me safe, he let go of my wrists and pulled me into a furious kiss.

When he pulled away, he whispered harshly, "Don't _ever _do something like that again."

I sighed contentedly, then glanced at the watch on his wrist. "Oh, shit. We've gotta get going."

He closed his eyes, then gestured to the other side of the roof. "Let's go then."

I was wary when I realized we still had to go through a great deal more trees, but there was nothing to be done about it. Our little group consisted of the only people at the Academy actually stupid enough to venture outside today, so it wasn't like we could walk in other people's footprints.

He jumped first again, and I followed after. Fortunately, this gap was only three feet, close enough to the building that all I had to do was reach across and grab a branch.

"Where are we actually going to hide?" I asked.

He stopped, frowning. "I have no idea. I hadn't though about that."

"Maybe we should just hide in the trees," I suggested.

He nodded. "Good idea."

I smirked. "Yeah, especially since Mia's a Moroi. And a water user. Unless she catches another dhampir first, which is unlikely, since she has to actually _tag_ them. And we aren't playing with any earth-using Moroi, which is good, because they would be able to just shake the tree and knock us out."

Dimitri raised his eyebrows. "Take a breath, Rose."

I inhaled deeply and laughed as I jumped to the next tree. We were almost at the start of the forest now. I breathed a sigh of relief now that the trees were starting to get closer and closer together.

It wasn't much longer until we were in the thick of the forest.

"Where do you want to stop?" I asked

He shrugged. " Let's just go a bit farther."

"Okay."

We went through another ten trees or so before we came to a clearing. I hadn't realized how far we'd gone. We were at the perimeter line, where the wards lay. What I saw sitting just inside those wards made the earlier heat come flooding back.

The cabin.

It looked like every other cabin laying along the perimeter line of the Academy, but something told me this was _the _cabin. The one where Dimitri and I had . . .

Why had he come this way specifically? Or was it just chance that this was the direction he'd chosen to come?

"I didn't realize how far out we were," he said, echoing my thoughts. Was it just me, or was his voice a little lower and rougher than it usually was?

"Do you wanna head back a bit?" I asked, trying to hold back the breathlessness.

He nodded, so I turned and led the way back deeper into the forest.

We climbed back about twenty trees before he decided we were probably in a good spot. It was easy to forget we were playing a game and not on a stakeout for strigoi or hanging out in the trees just for fun — don't ask. I know that song is running through your head right now: _Rose and Dimitri, sittin' in a tree. K - I - S - S - I - N - G._

I turned to him to see that he'd put his back to the trunk and spread his arms. Delighted, I crawled over and sat on his lap. We were only about ten feet off the ground, without too many branches below us (in case we got spotted and had to run and jump), but just enough to provide some cover, were someone to look up from underneath. It didn't really help that there were no leaves on the trees, but that was the trouble of playing this game in the winter.

"And now we wait," he said, putting his chin on my shoulder.

I bobbed my head. "Wait here. I'm going to go see where Lissa and Christian are hiding."

I heard him mumble, "Where am I going to go?" before my world was her world.

She was in a bathtub. Christian lay beneath her, and she snuggled into his chest. I had to dig through her thoughts a bit more to get her exact location, but eventually it came. They were in Dimitri's room.

I shocked myself back into my own body, feeling a frown on my face.

"Where are they?" Dimitri asked, looking at my face.

"In your room," I answered, still a little surprised.

"In my room? Where in my room?" He seemed startled too.

I smirked. "In your bathtub."

He raised an eyebrow when he noticed my expression. "Why is that funny?"

"I was just thinking that they wouldn't want to be in there if they knew what we'd done in there last weekend."

He flushed and looked down. I laughed and turned to straddle him.

"Are you ashamed of our love?" I teased, taking his face in my hands. I knew what his answer would be, but a part of me wanted to hear him say it.

He met my eyes, dead serious. "No. Never, Roza."

I smiled. "That's more like it."

"Do you think she'll find us?" he asked, changing the mood back to the light one we'd had originally.

I shook my head. "Nah, not unless she finds Eddie and Adrian first. Or Lissa and Christian."

We sat in comfortable silence for a while, until I decided to check back in on Lissa. When I did, what I saw surprised me. Mia had found them.

They ran, trying to keep away from her, but Mia had been training to be able to fight, and was already faster than them. She easily overtook Lissa and tagged her, and Christian wasn't far behind. He cursed her when her hand landed on his shoulder.

"Alright then," she said smugly. "Any idea where Adrian and Eddie would hide?"

Lissa and Christian shared a look. He shook his head, just as Lissa said, "Probably somewhere near the gym. That's where Eddie will feel the most safe."

As they headed off in that direction, Lissa asked, "Why aren't we hunting down Rose and Dimitri?"

Mia shrugged indifferently. "I don't want to have to chase them down without having another dhampir on our side."

Christian chuckled, and I returned to my own head, content that they weren't going to find us any time soon.

I glanced up to see Dimitri staring at me with a perplexed expression. "What's up?" I asked him.

He shook himself. "Nothing. Just the way your face shifts while you're in her head."

I frowned. "What do you mean? How does my face shift?"

He shrugged. "Your eyes are almost blank, and your face shifts with your thoughts. It's really amazing, knowing you're able to keep tabs on her like that, all thanks to some weird magic."

I smiled.

"So what's going on now?" he asked.

"She caught Lissa and Christian, and now they're going after Eddie and Adrian. They're checking the gym," I explained.

"Why not us?"

"She said she wanted to have a dhampir on her side before coming after us," I told him.

We sat in silence again. It was a nice silence, though, the kind that showed that you were comfortable enough with each other to not need words.

Several more minutes passed with only the birds and insects providing sound, like natural music, before I decided to check back in with Lissa. There wasn't much to do while hiding in a tree.

I guess they'd found Eddie and Adrian and tagged them, and now they were sitting in the gym, trying to figure out where we could be hiding.

"They're not in his room. I was checking for them there when I found you guys," Mia said, gesturing to Lissa and Christian.

"And they wouldn't hide in her room. No, they'd be smarter than that," Eddie said.

Everyone frowned. Adrian looked at Lissa. "Can you think of anything personal she's told you? Something involving a location? Something important to either him or her, somewhere they'd feel safe and somewhere they'd want to go?"

"Maybe the place they had their first kiss or something like that," Mia added.

"They had there first kiss here, if I remember correctly, so that rules out that." She gestured to the gym.

"Okay, then. Something else. How about the place they first slept together," Christian suggested. I was surprised at how much effort he was actually putting into this. That all of them were putting into this.

"The cabin," Lissa said brightly. I mentally frowned. When had I told her about that? I couldn't remember, but it wasn't overly surprising that I had. We told each other everything.

"Okay, that sounds promising," Eddie told her. "Where is it?"

"To the west," she said.

Eddie nodded. "Good. Let's go check around there then."

I pulled out of Lissa's head, returning to the forest with Dimitri.

"What's going on now?" he asked, and I filled him in.

"When did you tell her about that?" His face was red.

I shrugged. "I don't remember."

"So they're coming this way then."

I bobbed my head.

We sat together and waited, tensing more with each passing second. It wasn't long before we heard the snap of twigs breaking under feet and muttered curses. I put a finger to my lips, and ducked my head down to try to see them. Another minute passed before Eddie came into view, leading the entourage. It didn't surprise me. He would probably know where all of the cabins ringing the Academy would be.

Christian stopped the group, looking puzzled. I held my breath.

"Isn't this the way to the cabin where Aunt Tasha stayed?"

I just barely stopped myself from letting out a sigh of relief. They hadn't seen or heard us. Yet.

Lissa took a breath to answer, then stopped. Frowning, she sniffed again. Shit. She'd caught our scent.

She sniffed the air one more time, her delicate nostrils flaring. Then she looked up. Right into my eyes.

"There!" she cried, her own eyes dancing. She pointed up at where I hung in the tree.

I cursed. "Come on!" Dimitri called, jumping down and rolling at the impact. I copied what he did, and took off running.

Eddie was the only one who had a hope in hell of catching us, and suddenly I was glad for all the running Dimitri had made me do. He could still outrun me with ease, but he shortened his stride to stay with me.

I laughed as I ran, a breathless laugh. This was fun!

"Create a circle around them! Corner them!" I heard someone call. I frowned when I realized that's what Eddie was helping with. He was herding us.

"Right!" I yelled, veering off in that direction. Eddie followed, pelting harder than he had before.

I shot a glance over my shoulder. Never a smart move when your running. I didn't see the tree that decided to jump out in front of me, only being saved from smashing into it when Dimitri grabbed my wrist and tugged me toward him. I exhaled in a gust and kept running.

We broke from the cover of the forest. "Where?" I shouted out, not sparing the breath that would be needed to form a full sentence.

"Dorm!" came the response. "Lissa's!"

I frowned, wondering if that was such a good idea, but headed there anyway. We slammed through the doors, not even giving the dorm matron enough time to protest before we charged up the stairs. Even Dimitri was panting by the time we got to the fourth floor, but we still burst out the doors on the landing and raced down the hall. Her door was unlocked, so we let ourselves inside, not running any longer.

I was gasping for breath as I dropped down to my spot on the floor. Dimitri lay down beside me. I don't think I'd ever seen him so out-of-breath before.

I lay back, rolling onto my side and propping my head up on my hand. "We won," I gasped out, when I could get in enough air. He just nodded, still trying to get oxygen into his lungs.

We were both able to breath again when the rest of our group arrived. Eddie had given up on chasing us at some point, but was having just as hard a time breathing as I had been a couple of minutes ago.

"Alright," he panted. "You guys win."

I smiled. "Yay!"

Adrian rolled his eyes. "I think that's enough of _that _game. What do you guys wanna play next?"

We all looked around the room at each other. One at a time, everyone else shrugged.

Then I perked up. "I've got an idea!"

_*Wow. This thing is ten pages single spaced on Word Perfect. That's a lot of writing. Hope you guys liked it! I don't know when I'll be able to update next, because I'm alternating between this story and my _Dimitri's Point of View_.*_

_*Reviews with more game idea's are always welcome! More than welcome! Encouraged! Shout outs go to the person who delivers the best ideas every chapter!*_


	5. Chapter 5: Online Fun

*_It's not as long as some of the others, and probably not as good, so I apologize! I started it, then decided I didn't really like the idea as much as I thought I would, but I didn't want to scrap the entire idea and start over. The next one will be better, I'm sure!*_

*_Oh, and sorry, no shout outs this time! I did get some good ideas (cough cough Valover21 cough cough) but I didn't actually use any of them. Maybe I should have . . .*_

_*I still don't own Vampire Academy. (Sighs and daydreams about what that'd be like)*  
><em>

"God save us from your ideas, Roza," Dimitri said, winking.

I stuck my tongue out at him , and proceeded to tell everyone my idea anyway, whether they wanted to hear it or not.

"Alright, here it is. We go online. Then we go to Google. We look up party games, and we go to the third link — so long as it's not Wikipedia. Then we find the adult party games, and we do all of them, whether we want to or not." I bobbed my head approvingly at my own idea.

"Why the _third _link?" Christian asked.

I shrugged. "What's life without whimsy?" I replied, quoting Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory.

Lissa nodded and moved to her computer. "Good idea . . . I guess." I smiled at her as she booted it up and clicked on the browser.

Before long, we were all staring at a list of one-hundred and twenty adult party games.

"Okay," Lissa said. "Number one. '_The Most Favorite. The player who manages in a fixed time to get as many kisses as possible is "the most favorite". The kisses are counted by the signs of lipsticks left on the players_.'" she read. "How are we going to do that?"

I shrugged. I seem to do that a lot. "I'm sure you have some bright red lipstick around here somewhere, Liss. Go grab it."

She complied, returning with a stick of _Vivid Crimson_. I rolled it out and put it on. Then I did it for Lissa and Mia, but when I turned to Dimitri, the lipstick still outstretched, he back away, his hands in the air.

"Woah! I did not sign up for this!" I almost laughed at how much he sounded like Adrian or Christian. Wait . . . Maybe that wasn't such a good thing.

I smiled. "Come on, Comrade. We don't have enough girls for this, so the guys have to do it too." I smirked.

His eyes narrowed. If there hadn't been a smile on his face, I might have been scared for my life. No, scratch that. I _would_ have been scared for my life.

He kept backing up when I stepped forward until his back was against the wall. His eyes went wide like a rabbit who was caught in a trap when I put my arms on either side of him.

When I finally managed to get the lipstick on him, he pouted and I laughed, making him glare at me.

"All you need is a dress, and you'll be _fab-ulous_!" I laughed.

After seeing the big, bad Dimitri taken down and wearing lipstick, all the other guys resigned themselves to the same fate.

I smiled tightly to keep from laughing when they all had it on. Seeing Christian with fire-engine red lipstick on was the most hilarious thing I'd ever seen.

"Alright," Lissa said. "I'll set a timer on my phone for one minute . . ." she trailed off as she did as she said. "Okay. Ready, set, go!" She hit the button to start the timer.

I looked at Dimitri. This was going to be easy. The rules hadn't said anything about the kisses having to be from different people. I brought my lips to his. It was kind of disconcerting to taste lipstick on him. If I closed my eyes, it felt like I was kissing another girl. At least, it did if I blocked out the feel of his mouth on mine.

Just as I came up for a breath, I heard an annoying, incessant buzzing. It took me a moment to realize that it was the timer.

I pulled away from him and looked around the room. Christian had three lipstick marks, Mia had two and Lissa had four. Dimitri and I both didn't have any, since we had kissed each other on the lips. Eddie had managed to get an amazing seven, but Adrian was the one who won, managing to get himself a whopping ten lipstick marks!

I smirked. "That one goes to Adrian," I said in my best commentator voice. "What's next on the list?"

"'_Real Man. A player who manages to tie a kerchief on the lady's neck using only one of his hands may be called "the real man," _'" Christian read, swiping his hand over his mouth in an effort to remove the lipstick.

I turned to Lissa. "You got any bandanas or anything?"

She nodded and went to retrieve them.

I smiled, knowing that this wouldn't be hard for Dimitri. He had massive hands, hands where one could encircle my entire neck. And you know what they say about the size of the hands in relation to the size of . . . _other things_. You know, things below the belt.

I shook myself and brought my thoughts back to more relevant things. At least for the time being.

Lissa came back with three silk scarves, handing one to Christian, one to Dimitri and one to Adrian.

"Sorry, Eddie," she said. "We still have an odd number of people. Some of these games call for a moderator, though, so we can alternate who fills that position."

He shrugged. "No biggy. Alright men!" he called out, immediately filling out his role. "Hold your scarf in one hand. Now, on your marks, get set, go for it!"

Dimitri held his right hand — the one holding the scarf — beside my neck, then flicked his wrist. The material obligingly wrapped itself around my throat. Then he turned it so that the untied pieces lay on my shoulder, before he managed to get them in a knot.

He stepped back, hands up, and I listened to Eddie while he said, "Dimitri is the real man!"

I smiled and high-fived him. Then I winked and said, "_I_ knew that." Christian rolled his eyes and Adrian stuck his tongue out.

"So what are we doing next?" Christian asked.

Eddie glanced at the screen. "'_Roll A Ball. Usually several pairs take part in this game. Each pair is given 2 ping-pong balls. The gentleman must roll the ball from one sleeve of the lady's dress to the other. The lady rolls the ball through the gentleman's trouser-legs (from one trouser-leg to another)._'"

I looked at Dimitri, thanking any and all deities that he was here. I so did not want to think about having to do this to anyone else.

"Okay, so who's going to be referee this time?" Mia asked.

"Why don't we go in the same order we did for I Never?" Adrian suggested.

Christian shrugged. "That'll work."

"That means that Lissa's next to sit out," Mia said.

Liss covered her mouth with her hand to stifle her giggle. It didn't work. This meant that Christian would have to partner up with Eddie, since Mia and Adrian had already decided they were working together for this, and Dimitri and I were _obviously _working together. I didn't bother hiding my own laughter.

Lissa went to grab six ping-pong balls (really, where is she getting all the stuff for this!), and when she came back and handed them out, she announced, "Alright. Let's go!"

This would be easy . . . if we were allowed to do it one at a time. But we had to do it at the same time. Now, the fact that Dimitri has long arms would help with this, but he also has long legs. That would add to our time. Of course, there are some times when those legs were a great thing, just like the long arms — though not while sparring. The man had twice the reach I did; it was really annoying! — and the big hands. Now was not one of those times.

I kneeled before him, glad that I could at least use my hands. He had the easy job. I was still wearing the tank top I'd put on that morning, so all he had to do was roll it across my collar bones.

He bent down and set the ball on my shoulder as I set mine on his ankle. He bent at the waist as opposed to the knees, so as to make my job easier.

He had his part done as I was just getting to his knee, so he straightened up to get out of my way. I continued rolling the ball up until I got to the peak of his jeans, where I would have to start rolling it back down. That's where things got a little interesting.

I heard his intake of breath, and lifted my hand up instinctually. "Keep going," he said, though it came out in a mix of breathlessness and growl. An odd combination, I tell you.

I put my hand back down, and found the ball quickly. Or, at least, I thought I had, until I heard him inhale deeply, and he gritted out, "That's not the ping-pong ball."

I flushed. I was about to move my hand to find the right ball — by that I mean the ping-pong ball, you dirty minded freaks. Then again, I guess I started it! — when Lissa said, "Eddie and Christian are the winners!"

I tried to hold back my snort. I failed. Then I started chortling (attractive verb, I know). Then I began laughing in earnest, bowing my head down to try to keep _some_ measure of decency. It was only when I noticed Dimitri wasn't breathing that I remembered I had yet to move my hand.

"Oops, sorry," I said, rising to my feet. He finally breathed out.

"What's next on the list?" he asked, now that he was capable of inhalation and exhalation.

"Um, '_Putting of an Egg_,'" Mia read. "'_In each pair the partners stand with their backs to each other. They have an egg between their backs (or a little bit lower). The object is to put an egg on the ground, so as not to break it. The pair which succeeds in it wins the game. Instead the egg you may a small rubber ball. In this case the object of the game is to put the ball on the ground so as it doesn't roll._'"

"Ping-pong balls?" Christian suggested. Lissa nodded.

"Um, excuse me," Dimitri said, making his way to the bathroom. He returned a few seconds later, the ping-pong ball in his hand. Christian backed away when he walked past, undoubtably thinking of how the ball had been in his pants and of how Dimitri had admitted to going commando sometimes a little under two hours ago.

"Christian's the next person to sit out," Adrian stated. The fire-user glowered at the fact that Lissa was going to have to pair up with Eddie, but obligingly stepped to the side.

"You realize this is harder than if you were doing it with eggs, right," he pointed out dryly.

"Alright," Christian said. "Place your balls where they're going to go."

"Dude, you have no idea how wrong that sounded," Adrian said, snickering. Christian glared at him.

We decided to go with the _a little lower _option. Of course, _a little lower_ on Dimitri meant just below the crest of my hip. We got the ball positioned, which actually wasn't as hard as I'd though it was going to be. The contours of our bodies fit perfectly together, so his buttocks fit into the small of my back, giving the ball a nice, cushy spot to sit in.

"Go," Christian said without ceremony, sounding rather bored. Or maybe it was just that he had to work so hard to mask his jealousy.

We started lowering ourselves down, pressing our backs together and making like we were going to sit.

"Awe, shit," I heard Eddie say, and glanced over to see Lissa's and his ball slip out and bounce across the floor.

Adrian and Mia huffed when their ball decided it wanted to join Eddie and Lissa's. I chuckled.

"Screw it. I give up. Let's do something else," Adrian said, glaring at the offending ping-pong ball.

I laughed aloud. "Alright. At least for now. Maybe we can come back to this later and try some of the less annoying ones. So, not every single one."

Mia nodded enthusiastically.

I then realized Dimitri and I were still in our rather uncomfortable position, so we dropped to the floor, rather than try to stand from there. That would have been a challenge.

I sighed in relief, glad that my legs no longer screamed at me. I leaned my head on Dimitri's shoulder, smiling contentedly. My thoughts drifted to a cat laying in the sun, totally lazy.

After a few moments, we sat back in our loose circle. "So," Lissa began, "what should we do next?"

*****_**Please review! I need more ideas so that I don't end up writing another not-so-great chapter like this!**_*****


	6. Chapter 6: Kareoke

_***Sooo sorry for the really late update! I had exams the past couple of weeks, so most of my time was spent studying. Ugh. Thankfully, they're over now! So, yay! New chapter!***_

*_**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I just wanna say, everyone should check out Complicated Days series'!He's got three for VA: Fixing the Broken (which is on hold for now), Seductions and Deceptions**_ _**(he just started it, but it's awesome so far!), and The Sweetest Surrender (my personal favorite! So amazing!). He's really awesome! Check them out!***_

* * *

><p>I glanced at the clock on Lissa's night stand. 3:00. Great! Two hours until dinner, and then another four hours until curfew! Think of the games we can get in with that amount of time!<p>

"Well, let's see," Mia said. "Eddie's picked a game, Christian's suggested one, Lissa has, and so has Rose. My turn now." She winked. "Let's do kareoke!" Dimitri groaned.

I smirked. "Don't like to sing, Comrade?"

He shook his head, a pained look on his face. "Not to whatever your going to force me to sing to."

I elbowed him playfully. "You'll sing it and you'll love it."

I turned to Mia, almost missing the face Dimitri made. "_Great_ idea!"

Lissa smiled. "Youtube or iPod?"

I frowned in thought. "Ipod, definitely. Then the '80's lover here can't pick something no one else likes," I said, sticking my tongue out at him. He rolled his eyes.

"That's not fair," Eddie protested. "What if I want to sing a song that's not on your iPod?"

I glanced at the ceiling, fighting the urge to roll my eyes. "Alright . . . Everyone can use Youtube except Dimitri." I smiled at him while he glared.

"Who's going first?" Christian asked, not sounding as excited as the rest of us. Well, except for Dimitri. He was even less excited than Christian.

Everyone looked around the circle, waiting for someone else to step up. Finally, I stood. "I'll do it!"

I grabbed Lissa's iPod off her desk and flipped through her songs until I found the one I wanted. Just as I was about to hit play I paused. "How about if we have a sing/dance off?" I asked, eyes alight.

Lissa nodded eagerly. "Awesome! We should judge and have a winner, too!"

Dimitri raised an eyebrow. "What would they win?"

"How about they get to chose one person to do whatever they say for a day. Of course, this day'll have to happen at some time after Rose's dare." Adrian snickered. "Don't think we've forgotten about that, either." He winked. "I so hope I win this. That way I can make Rose do _whatever I want_." He said the last part in a breathy whisper. I tried to resist the urge to flip him off, failed to do so.

I hit play on the iPod, and suddenly "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5 started playing. As the first few licks blared through the room, Liss jumped up. "I so wanna do this with you!"

Christian glanced at her. "How are we supposed to decide who wins if you're doing it together?"

She shrugged. "We'll each do another one."

She raced over to my side just as the first lyrics started. I gestured for her to sing the first verse. She smiled and opened her mouth.

"_Just shoot for the stars, if it feels right. And aim for my heart, if you feel like. And take me away, and make it okay. I swear I'll behave!_" Couldn't she do anything poorly? She sang like the angel her looks made her out to be.

I took over from there. "_You wanted control, so we waited. I put on a show, now I make it. You say I'm a kid. My ego is big. I don't give a shit. And it does like this._"

I couldn't help thinking of Dimitri's and my relationship. It kinda reminded me of this verse. In fact, the whole song kind of spoke of us, various parts of our affair, here and there.

Dimitri had said we had to take control of our love, so we had tried to wait until I would graduate. We put on a facade that we were just student and teacher, but then we realized we couldn't deny it. When we'd gone on the ski trip, he'd called me a kid. My ego's always big (with good reason, of course! I'm awesome!), 'cause I'm a bad-ass!

We sang the chorus together. We always sang the chorus together, no matter what song it was. It was an unspoken rule.

"_Take me by the tongue, and I'll know you. Kiss me 'till you're drunk, and I'll show you. All the moves like Jagger. I've got the moves like Jagger. I've got the moves like Jagger. I don't need to try to control you. Look into my eyes and I'll own you. With them moves like Jagger. I've_ _got the moves like Jagger. I've got the moves like Jagger._"

For the dance moves that went along with the music, I pulled out all the old disco favorites, picking cherries, that sort of thing. At one point, I got really creative, and started doing the worm on the floor. Don't ask me where I learned to do that. You don't want to know.

As I quickly went over the lyrics to the next verse in my head, I gestured to myself to show that I'd sing first. I figured it fit me better. The part after that might very well be a part of my future, but, hey, I didn't know anything about my future yet. That's why it's in the future. So, for now, Lissa could sing it.

"_Maybe it's hard. When you feel like, you're broken and scarred. Nothing feels right. But when you're with me, I'll make you believe, that I've got the key._" I broke off, and Liss took over.

"_Oh. So get in the car. We can ride it, wherever you want. Get inside it. And you want to steer, but I'm shifting gears. I'll take it from here! And it goes like this_," she belted out.

"_Take me by the tongue, and I'll know you. Kiss me 'till you're drunk, and I'll show you. All the moves like Jagger. I've got the moves like Jagger. I've got the moves like Jagger. I don't need to try to control you. Look into my eyes and I'll own you. With them moves like Jagger. I've got the moves like Jagger. I've got the moves like Jagger._"

When we got to the next part, where the girl sings, we sang together too, but Lissa sang soft undertones to my louder voice. We complemented each other, though, neither one overtaking the other. It was an impressive balance, let me tell you.

I locked eyes with Dimitri as I opened my mouth. "_You wanna know, how to make me smile? Take control; own me, just for the night. And if I share my secret, you're gonna have to keep it. Nobody else can see this._

"_So watch and learn. I won't show you twice. Head to toe; oooh baby rub me right. But if I share my secret, you're gonna have to keep it. Nobody else can see this. Hey, hey, hey, hey!_

"_And it goes like this._

"_Take me by the tongue and_ _I'll know you. Kiss me 'till you're drunk, and I'll show you. All the moves like Jagger. I've got the moves like Jagger. I've got the moves like Jagger. I don't need to try to control you. Look into my eyes and I'll own you. With them moves like Jagger. I've got the moves like Jagger. I've got the moves like Jagger._"

We finished off with a high-five. When we looked back at our friends, they were looking at us, mouths agape. "What?" I asked indignantly.

"Who knew her mouth was good for something like that?" Adrian asked. I flicked the top of his head as I passed.

I sat back down on Dimitri's lap, and he kissed the top of my head. "Impressive," he murmured.

I smiled.

"Okay, who wants to officially go first?" Lissa asked.

"Mia should do it," Adrian said. "It was her idea."

Mia shrugged. "Sure, whatever. Gotta find a song," she said, picking up the iPod. She scrolled through for a while, and when she hit play, she had picked E.T. by Katy Perry.

We had all ended up breaking from the circle and facing the same way, making a sort of stage. She stepped into that open space just as the lyrics started.

"_You're so hypnotizing. Could you be the devil? Could you be an angel?_" We laughed as she flapped her hands around in the air, miming wings. She wasn't a bad singer either. It was impressive.

"_Your touch, magnetizing_._ Feels like going floating, leave my body glowing. They say: 'Be afraid.' You're not like the others, futuristic lovers. Different DNA. They don't understand you. You're from a whole other world. A different dimension. You open your eyes, and I'm ready to go, lead me into the light._" She raked her hand over Adrian's chest, then tapped Eddie on the nose. Heat flashed through both guys eyes and was gone as she moved away again and continued the song.

"_Kiss me, k-k-kiss me. Infect me with your love, and fill me with your poison. Take me, t-t-take me. Wanna be your victim, ready for abduction. Boy, you're an alien, your touch so far away. It's supernatural, extraterrestrial_." She winked.

"_You're so super sonic. Wanna feel your powers, stun me with your lasers. Your kiss is cosmic, every move is magic. You're from a whole other world. A different dimension. You open your eyes, and I'm ready to go, lead me into the light._" She gave a killer smile, trying to imitate my own man-eater smile. Hers wasn't bad, but it didn't touch mine.

"_Kiss me, k-k-kiss me. Infect me with your love, and fill me with your poison. Take me, t-t-take me. Wanna be your victim, ready for abduction. Boy, you're an alien, your touch so far away. It's supernatural, extraterrestrial_. _There is this transcendental, on another level. Boy, you're my lucky star. I wanna walk on your wavelength, and be there when you vibrate._" She knelt down in front of Eddie and walked her fingers down his chest, playing with the waistband of his jeans.

"_For you I risk it all. Kiss me, k-k-kiss me. Infect me with your love, and fill me with your poison. Take me, t-t-take me. Wanna be your victim, ready for abduction. Boy, you're an alien, your touch so far away. It's supernatural, extraterrestrial_. _Extraterrestrial. Extraterrestrial. Boy, you're an alien, your touch so far away. It's supernatural, extraterrestrial._"

When she finished, she straddled Eddie and kissed him. He was caught off guard, and his eyes went wide before relaxing into the kiss.

She pulled away a moment later, blushing furiously as she stood up. She noticed the raised eyebrows around the room, and blushed even more. She shrugged. "I got carried away."

I laughed, then pointed at Eddie. "You're next to sing!"

He groaned but stood and grabbed the iPod. He was quick picking his song; I guess he'd already decided before standing up.

The familiar first few riffs of Hey, Soul Sister by Train started.

"_Hey. Hey. Hey. Your lipstick stains, on the front lobe of my left-side brains_." He tapped his forehead. He seemed really nervous, though I had no idea why. We were all friends here. No one was going to make fun of him. Much. Ha, couldn't even think that with a straight face.

"_I knew I wouldn't forget you, and so I went and let you blow my mind. You're sweet, moonbeam. The smell of you in every single dream I dream._" He locked eyes with Mia.

"_I knew when we collided, you're the one I have decided, whose one of my kind_." He met my eyes now, thinking of the dhampir thing. It was weird. Everyone seemed to be picking songs with deeper meaning. It made me want to think further into Mia's performance.

"_Hey, soul sister. Ain't that mister mister on the radio, stereo. The way you move ain't fair, you know._" He looked at Lissa then, but I knew that had nothing to do with any romantic feelings. She was an amazing dancer. There was no way to deny it.

"_Hey, soul sister, I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight. Hey. Hey. Hey. Just in time. I'm so glad you have a one-track mind like me._" His eyes flicked to Dimitri and then back to Mia for the next line.

"_You gave my life direction._" To Lissa. "_A game show love connection we can't deny._" To me. "_I'm so obsessed. My heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest._" To Adrian. "_I believe in you, like a virgin. You're Madonna._" He sent his eyes to the heavens so that he wasn't looking at anyone for the next line. "_And I'm always gonna wanna blow your mind._"

I noticed he wasn't dancing much, just kinda stood there swaying. I had a feeling he wasn't going to win.

"_Hey, soul sister. Ain't that mister mister on the radio, stereo. They way you move ain't fair, you know._ _Hey, soul sister, I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight._ _The way you can cut a rug. Watching you's the only drug I need. Some gangster, I'm so thug. You're the only one I'm dreaming of. You see, I can be myself now, finally. In fact there's nothing I can't be. I want the world to see you'll be with me._" He swept his gaze around the room, then kept going.

"_Hey, soul sister. Ain't that mister mister on the radio, stereo. The way you move ain't fair, you know. Hey, soul sister, I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight. Hey, soul sister, I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight. Hey. Hey. Hey. Tonight. Hey. Hey. Hey. Tonight._"

I raised my eyebrows. "Nice."

Lissa winked at him, and he blushed before sitting down.

"But," I continued, "you still don't win the bet." He stuck his tongue out, but nodded.

"Adrian next!" Lissa called. I smiled at him while he stood, grumbling something about there not being enough vodka in the world.

"Hello, Simon Cowell," — he pointed to me — "Paula Abdul," — he pointed to Mia — "and Randy Jackson." He pointed to Eddie. "My name is Adrian Ivashkov, and I'll be singing Dynamite by Taio Cruz."

Dimitri raised an eyebrow. "American Idol? Really?"

Adrian smirked as the music began. "_I-I-I-I-I. I came to dance, dance, dance, dance. I hit the floor 'cause that's my plans, plans, plans, plans._" He jumped up and down, then started doing burbies, jumping up then hitting the floor in the push-up position.

"_I'm wearing all my favorite brands, brands, brands, brands._" He touched his shoe, then his watch, then popped his non-existent collar.

"_Give me some space for both my hands, hands, hands, hands._" He flipped his palms up and down a couple of times, then did jazz hands.

"_Ye, ye. 'Cause it goes on and on and on. And it goes on and on and on._" He started doing the sprinkler, and I couldn't hold back my laughter anymore.

"_Yeah! I throw my hands up in the air sometimes! Saying AYO! Gotta let go! I wanna celebrate and live my life! Saying AYO! Baby, let's go!_" He resumed jumping up and down, this time fist pumping and waving his hands around in the air.

"'_Cause we gonna rock this club. We gonna go all night. We gonna light it up. Like it's dynamite!_" He jumped out towards us, waving his limbs around crazily to demonstrate an explosion.

"'_Cause I told you once. Now I told you twice. We gonna light it up. Like it's dynamite!_" He continued his crazy flailing, then stopped for the next line, deciding instead to moonwalk. I was laughing so hard now I had tears in my eyes.

"_I came to move, move, move, move. Get out the way me and my crew, crew, crew, crew._" He mimed shoving people out of his way, then gestured to all of us as his 'crew.'

"_I'm in the club so I'm gonna do, do, do, do. Just what the fuck came here to do, do, do, do._" He pointed to me, then waved me toward him, shooting me a _come hither_ look. I rolled my eyes, and he kept going, doing the wave with himself.

"_Ye, ye. 'Cause it goes on and on and on! And it goes on and on and on!_ _Yeah!_" This time for the chorus, he moon walked backwards, then did a cartwheel. I was impressed, actually. I didn't know he could do that.

He finished his song, and by the time he was done, we were all laughing so hard I was surprised no one had peed their pants. Because I was pretty sure I was closer to that than I ever had been before.

_Oh, shit_,I thought. _I have to beat that to make sure he doesn't win the slave bet._ I shuddered at the thought of what he'd make me do. 'Cause we _all_ know he'd pick me. How on earth was I going to top that.

Christian went next. He didn't take long picking his song: _Music Again,_ by Adam Lambert. Lissa was a major Adam Lambert fan. I thought he was pretty good, but I didn't have the same obsession that she did.

He gyrated in time with the music, his voice matching Adam's tone for tone. When he got to the first chorus, singing, "_Put your little hand in mine, look into my eyes, baby, eyes_," he reached out to Lissa and pulled her up next to him. She shrieked, laughing as she stood and danced with him. I smiled and couldn't help giggling myself, leaning into Dimitri's side.

By the time he got to the end, everyone was giggling and smiling uncontrollably. That said, I still think Adrian's was better.

"Who next?" I asked. I met Lissa's eyes. She shrugged and moved to her iPod to pick her song.

I smiled wider when I heard the first licks of Just Dance by Lady GaGa start. She swayed side to side like she was drunk as she stared singing. Once she got to the chorus, she was jumping up and down, and she looked just a little bit crazed.

"_Control your poison, babe. Roses have thorns, they say_," she sang, pointing at me. I laughed harder, throwing my head back against Dimitri's shoulder. His chest rumbled as he laughed as well.

She was panting by the time she finished, and everyone around the room clapped wildly. I think part of the reason everyone enjoyed her performance — if you could call it that — was because she spent so much of her time trying to be dignified and perfect, trying to live up to her title. It was nice to see her go wild sometimes.

She sat back down, and I rea ched over Dimitri's lap to hug her, smiling the whole time. She laughed when I pulled back.

"Now it's down to just you and Dimitri left to sing," she said.

I glanced at him. He raised his eyebrows and gestured for me to go first, so I jumped up, pointing at him. "You know you still have to go, right? Putting it off doesn't eliminate the need for it to be done!"

He sighed and nodded. I bobbed my head contentedly, and skipped over to Liss's iPod, scrolling through the songs. Which did I want to do? Smiling, I settled on _If I Had You_, by Adam Lambert.

I strut around the room as I started singing. "_So I got my boots on, got the right 'mount of leather, and I'm doing me up with a black color liner._" I mimed drawing a circle around my eyes.

"_And I'm working my strut,_" I popped my hip out, giving Adrian a perfect shot of my butt. That was bound to get _his_ vote for me. While he ogled my backside, I kicked up my heel and hit my own butt and kept going.

"_But I know it don't matter. All we need in this world is some love._" I crooked my finger at Dimitri, then winked before whirling around and walked away from them.

"_There's a thin line, between the dark side and the light side. Baby, tonight._" I turned to face them again, gyrating my hips as I sang the chorus.

As I went through the rest of the song, I knew I wouldn't win the bet. I could only hope that Lissa or Christian won instead of Adrian.

When the last notes rang through the air, I walked over to Dimitri and pulled the reluctant man to his feet, shoving him in the direction of the iPod. He sighed and dragged his feet, but eventually flipped through the songs.

I was amazed when he actually settled on a song relatively quickly. As far as I knew, Lissa didn't have very many — if any — '80's songs, so I wondered what he could possibly have settled on.

Everyone waited in silence for the song to begin. We all wanted to know what the classic rock lover was going to pick to sing.

I was shocked even further when the song that played was one that I'd heard on the radio that very morning: _Just The Way You Are, _by Bruno Mars.

I'd had no idea he could sing. I'd never really given it a whole lot of thought, though I suppose it shouldn't have been that big a surprise. I mean, the man was good at _everything._

"_Oh, her eyes, her eyes make the stars look like they're not shining. Her hair, her hair falls perfectly without her trying. She so beautiful, and I tell her every day._" He held my eyes the entire time, and there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he was singing the entire thing to me. My insides melted, and I found myself drowning in his gorgeous brown eyes.

"_I know, I know when I compliment her she won't believe me. And it's so, it's so sad to think that she don't see what I see. But every time she asks me, "Do I look okay?"_ _I say . . ._" He smiled at me, and I found my lips turning up before I even had a chance for my brain to decide whether it wanted them to or not.

"_When I see your face, there's not a thing that I would change. 'Cause you're amazing, just the way you are. And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while. 'Cause, girl, you're amazing, just the way you are._" He reached down and hauled me to my feet. I pressed my body against his as he and I danced around the room.

"_Her lips, her lips, I could kiss them all day if she'd let me. Her laugh, her laugh, she hates but I think it's so sexy. She's so beautiful, and I tell her everyday._" He twirled me out then yanked me back, crushing me to his chest and hugging me tight. As we twirled, I caught sight of Lissa. Her heart was plastered all over her face, and it was obvious she loved the romantic gesture just as much as I did. She was happy for me.

"_Oh, you know, you know, you know I'd never ask you to change. If perfect's what you're searching for then just stay the same. So don't even bother asking if you look okay. You know I'll say . . ._" He pressed his lips to mine, fast and furious, before he had to pull away to keep singing.

"_When I see your face, there's not a thing that I would change. 'Cause you're amazing, just the way you are. And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while. 'Cause, girl, you're amazing, just the way you are_." He dipped me, planting a kiss at the hollow of my throat. When he lifted me back up, we stopped moving, and instead stood, staring into each other's eyes as he sang the last part. It was incredibly intimate, and I totally forgot that anyone else was in the room.

"_The way you are. The way you are. Girl, you're amazing, just the way you are._" He slid his hands to my hips.

"_When I see your face, there's not a thing that I would change. 'Cause you're amazing, just the way you are._" He lifted me into the air, his muscles shivering as he held me above his head. His face was tilted up to keep looking me in the eyes. I suppressed a surge of panic. I knew Dimitri wouldn't drop me.

"_And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while. 'Cause, girl, you're amazing, just the way you are._" He lowered me down so that our lips touched. I got lost in that kiss, slipping my tongue into his mouth. He kept lowering me until my feet hit the ground, never once pulling away from the kiss. I heard Bruno Mars call out, "Yeah," as the song ended, but we didn't break apart until the last note died away.

I blushed and turned to face everyone else, though Dimitri pulled my back against his chest, trapping me there and keeping me from moving away from him. Lissa and Mia were smiling goofily, and even the other guys didn't seem to have the romanticism of the moment lost on them.

Eventually, Lissa spoke up. "Well, I definitely think Dimitri wins the slave bet."

The others nodded their agreement, even Adrian, though his was a little grudgingly.

Mia laughed. "Looks like Rose is his to command."

"In a week," Eddie corrected. Christian and I made faces at the mention of the dare.

There was a pause, before Adrian said, "So, what now?"

* * *

><p><em><strong>*Still sorry about the really late update! And, as usual, any and all ideas you have for me are totally welcome!*<strong>_


	7. Chapter 7: Spin-The-Bottle

_***Oh my god, I'm super sorry for how late this update was! All my files were on my laptop, and my charger cord started sparking and then died on me, so I haven't been able to get onto my laptop for soooo long . . . Anyway, here we go!***_

_***Oh, and as always, I own nothing. Pooh.***_

Adrian looked around the room, but no one said anything. A smile broke out on his face, and I started to worry.

He winked at me, then said, "We're gonna play Spin-The-Bottle."

I shrugged. I'd been expecting something way worse.

"And, naturally, Adrian's gonna supply the bottle, right?" Christian sneered. Adrian just raised his eyebrow and pulled one of his empty bottles out from seemingly nowhere.

Mia sighed. "Alright, let's get this over with. I don't want to have to kiss any more people than absolutely necessary."

Adrian opened his mouth again to say something, but I cut him off. "Don't you dare say anything about playing strip Spin-The-Bottle."

"Aw . . ." He pouted. "You know we're going to have to do it at some point today. Why not just get it over with?"

Lissa made a face. "I don't understand why we have to turn anything into a strip game."

"It's more fun that way!" Adrian exclaimed. "Obviously."

I considered smacking him, but decided to let it go. "Adrian, we are not playing strip Spin-The-Bottle. So give it up. Let's just all sit down and start with the game already," I said, flunking down in an approximation of where my spot had been. Hm, approximation. That's kind of a big word for me. Dimitri must be wearing off on me.

Everyone else gradually sat down while grumbling about various things. Loudest of course being Adrian complaining about the amount of clothing that was still on people's bodies.

The bottle was set in the center of the circle, and we decided to play a round of rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock (the classic game from The Big Bang Theory, of course. We seem to have a fixation on that show, don't we? Or at least I do. . . .) to decide who would spin first.

"Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock!" we all cried.

I threw Spock, Lissa and Eddie both threw paper, Adrain and Mia threw lizard and Christian and Dimitri threw rock.

"Well, paper disproves Spock, and lizard poisons Spock, so I guess I'm first," I muttered. "Yay."

I flicked the bottle, watching as it spun, hoping it didn't land on Adrian, who appeared to be bouncing to himself in anticipation.

When the bottle stopped, it was pointing to Lissa. A little weird, but it wasn't as creepy as it would have been if it had landed on Adrian. I gave her a quick peck on the cheek and backed away.

Somehow our seating arrangement had gotten messed up, so Lissa ended up having to spin next anyway, since she was sitting next to me.

When the bottle landed on Adrian, I couldn't help my bark of laughter. She scowled but leaned over and kissed him lightly.

The magical bottle seemed to have it in mind that it was going to go around the circle in order, so Adrian had to spin next. His bouncing resumed as he watched the bottle in motion.

I nearly thought it was going to land on me. I held myself tense, but it made it just barely past me and onto Lissa. I breathed a sigh of relief at the same time as Lissa groaned. Adrian didn't look super happy about it either, but he leaned over and kissed Lissa, much to Christian's chagrin. I smirked at his discomfort. It was understandable, though. I mean, who wouldn't feel insecure when Adrian the man-whore was kissing your girlfriend?

The spinning of the bottle passed to Eddie, and this time it did land on me. It wasn't too bad, kissing Eddie, since we'd been friends since we were really little, but that did make it feel a little awkward.

Mia spun next, and it landed on me again. "Seriously? I think this thing is rigged!" I cried. Mia and I both made faces as she leaned in and pecked me.

Dimitri was next in line, and my stomach clenched in anticipation as I watched the spun glass . . . well, spin. It landed on Lissa, just barely stopping before Adrian. I supposed there were worse people to have to watch Dimitri kiss, but my brain was having a hard time remembering who they were as I watched my soul mate peck my best friend on the lips.

"Well, now that _that_ tense moment is over . . ." Christian muttered, reaching for the bottle. He spun it with a flick of his pale wrist, and it spun all of 180 degrees. Landing right on Eddie. He scowled. "Naturally." Then he leaned over and pecked the dhampir on the cheek, staying as far away from his lips as possible.

And we were back to me. I spun, and it stopped at Eddie again. "Really?" he and I said at the same time.

I leaned in and kissed him again. As I sat back, Mia spoke up. "I think that once you've been kissed three times, you should be eliminated from the game. Otherwise it'll just go on forever. And I have an idea for another game."

"Just three? That seems kind of low to me. What if we do, like, seven?" Lissa suggested.

Mia shrugged. "Whatever. Sure. Seven."

"So, Eddie and I both have two strikes against us, Lissa has three, and everyone else isn't even on the board," I summed up.

"That sounds about right," Eddie said.

When it was clear that nothing more was going to be said, Lissa leaned down and spun the bottle. It felt like it spun forever before it landed on Adrian. Lissa's face was devoid of emotion as she stared at the bottle. Then she squinted at it as though willing it to start moving again. It didn't. It just stubbornly kept instructing her to kiss Adrian. So she did.

Adrian spun, and had to kiss Mia. I think she enjoyed it a little more than she let on. But it could have been my imagination.

I was kind of surprised that none of us had actually gotten to kiss someone we wanted to yet. But, I guess that's what happens in Spin-The-Bottle. It's a game of chance.

When Mia spun next, it landed back on Adrian. "Are you kidding me?" she squealed. Sighing, she leaned over and kissed him again.

Dimitri spun the bottle really lightly, and it actually landed on me! Yay! He crawled over to me and kissed me passionately and deeply. I got lost in his kiss, in the feelings of fireworks and velvet and comfort. I wanted to stay in his strong protective embrace forever, but when someone cleared their throat, I remembered there was five other people in the room and that we were technically in the middle of a game. Dimitri moved back to where he'd been sitting, and Christian, after shooting Dimitri an indecipherable look, spun the bottle.

It landed on Lissa. "Now things are picking up," he said with a smile as he leaned over me to smooch with his girlfriend. I couldn't help the gagging sounds that my throat released.

Then it was my turn again. As the bottle spun, I decided to add some sound to the low-key-seeming game. "Dun-dun. Dun-dun. Dun-dun dun-dun dun-dun dun-dun dun-dun dun-dun dun- dun!" I sang the theme from _Jaws_. "And my next victim is . . . Mia!" I pressed my hands together like a fin and mimed swimming over to her. I snapped my teeth closed less than an inch from her nose, and quickly pressed my lips to her cheek before I "swam" away.

"What is wrong with you?" Christian asked.

I shrugged. "It felt like a funeral in here. I was just trying to liven it up a bit. Jeez," I said to myself. "Some people are just so unappreciative." I looked over to see Dimitri raising an eyebrow at me. I flicked my hand in his direction and gestured for Lissa to take her turn.

She did, and had to kiss Eddie. After that we paused to take score again. Dimitri and Christian were both kiss-free. Mia and Adrian sat at two, and Eddie and I had three. Lissa was winning — or was it losing? — with four.

Adrian had to kiss Mia again. "I really do think this thing is rigged," he complained. "I haven't gotten to kiss Rose a single time."

I smiled. "Fate doesn't like you."

He huffed. "Guess not. Let's see if we can fix that."

Eddie had to kiss Lissa, keeping her in the lead. Not that she had been on the verge of being overtaken anyway, but now she was just extending her reign.

When Mia spun, it landed on herself. "What does that mean?" she asked. "Do I just have to kiss myself?"

"No, of course not silly! You have to spin again!" Adrian crowed. Mia glared at him but complied all the same.

She ended up having to kiss Adrian. Again. "You know, I'm really getting sick of having to kiss you," she said as she pulled away.

"That is very rude. And hurtful," Adrian told her. She just shrugged.

Silent and stoic Dimitri took his turn and landed on Eddie. I choked on a laugh. "And last week you thought you were so special because you didn't have to kiss another guy!" I choked out. Eddie glared at me as he leaned in and gave Dimitri the quickest kiss in history.

Once I finished my chortling, we continued the game. And Christian had to kiss Adrian, which started up my laughing all over again. This time Lissa and Mia joined in, and we all had a hard time keeping ourselves still long enough to watch the kiss.

I spun and landed on myself. "Well, of course. I'm just so magnetizing," I joked.

Christian snorted. "Get over yourself, Rose."

I resisted the urge to flip him off as I spun again. Barely.

This time I landed on Dimitri. I smiled as I stalked over to him. Just as I was about to bring my lips down on his, I heard Christian's voice. "Let's not have this one last as long as the last one, shall we?"

I pulled back just enough to say, "Drop dead, Sparkles," before I leaned forward and made contact with Dimitri. And no, this one didn't last as long as the last one, so Christian got his wish. Although I did like that name for him. Sparkles. I feel like that just might stick. Hehehe, fun.

Lissa landed on herself, too, when she spun. "What is this? An epidemic?" Eddie exclaimed as Lissa reached out to retry. But when she spun a second time, she landed on herself again. "Oh, my god," she muttered, reaching out for a third time.

That time it landed on Christian — er, Sparkles. She happily leaned over and kissed him deeply. I managed to hold back the vomiting sounds this time, but it was a tight battle. Or a close race. Or whatever.

Adrian had to kiss Lissa, finally breaking the Adrian/Mia fate pattern. "Okay, so Liss only needs one more kiss to win the game," Mia announced, just in case the rest of us hadn't been paying attention.

Eddie also landed on himself, and he sighed as he spun again. That time he landed on Mia. I couldn't decide whether I thought he was smiling or not as he leaned over and placed his lips on hers.

Mia spun and landed on Lissa. She crawled across the circle and pecked her on the cheek. When she sat back on her haunches in her own spot, she declared, "And that's the game! Lissa wins. Even fate loves her more than the rest of us."

Christia — Sparkles chimed in, "Of course fate does. She's the most special person in the world."

Adrian mimed making himself puke.

"Okay, so what now?" Dimitri asked, speaking for the first time for nearly the entire game. "Didn't Mia have an idea?"

Mia nodded with a sly smile. "I sure do."

_***Thank you for your patience! I feel so bad! But I'm back! Yay! By now you should know the drill: Review! Yay!***_


	8. Chapter 8: Dodge Ball

_***You know what I have to say here. So let's get on with the show!***_

"What's your idea, Mia?" Eddie asked.

"Dodge ball," she said with a smile.

"How do you expect to do that?" Christian asked. "We don't have any balls." Adrian snickered.

Mia thought for a second. "Potato dodge ball," was her answer.

"What does that even mean?" Christian asked.

"It's simple. It's just like regular dodge ball, but with potatoes instead of balls."

Adrian's brow furrowed. "Why would we do that?"

"I don't know. But we don't have any balls." Adrian snickered again. "So I thought I'd try to come up with a solution."

I frowned. "I like the idea of dodge ball. Potatoes, on the other hand. . . . I like it," I said with a — possibly slightly evil — smile.

Dimitri put his hand on my shoulder. "No. There will be no potatoes involved if we are playing dodge ball."

"But if we play something else?" I asked, looking up at him through my eyelashes.

"No."

"Aw!" I whined.

His expression was unforgiving. "No."

"Fine," I sighed.

"There are balls we use for dodge ball in the gyms on the primary campus. Why don't we just go over there and play?" Dimitri suggested.

"That sounds fun," Mia said, shrugging.

"Not as fun as with potatoes," I muttered.

Lissa shot me a look that said _Rose, give it up already. _And I knew for a fact that's what it meant, because that's exactly what she was thinking.

We headed over to the primary campus, Adrian whistling happily as he tried to jump and stay within the tracks of other people. I kept grumbling about how much more fun this would be with potatoes. The novices did dodging drills where we had tennis balls hurled at us; I really didn't think potatoes would hurt too much more than that.

Dimitri quickly uncovered the foam balls and chucked five of them out into the gym. He didn't appear to be aiming, but I noticed that the majority of the balls landed on the side of the gym I stood on.

"Okay, we have to pick teams," Eddie declared. "But we have an odd number of people."

"So? Let's do Moroi against dhampirs. They have more people that way," I said.

"Not fair at all," Adrian claimed. "You can throw a lot harder and dodge a lot better than we can. We should do boys against girls!"

I looked at the girls. "What do you think?"

They nodded.

"Let's do it!" I cried. "Ready!"

"Set!" called Eddie.

"Go!" yelled Lissa, running forward and picking up a ball, which she then chucked at Christian. It hit him in the calf, because he was startled that she'd thrown it at him in the first place.

"Nice one!" I called to her, picking up my own ball. I had a plan. Take out the toughest competition first. That would be Eddie and Dimitri.

I zeroed in on my mentor, tracking his moves, holding the ball down by my thigh so it was half hidden. Of course, he saw, and his eyes narrowed. He found his own ball — foam ball, that is — and we squared off on opposite sides of the gymnasium. I heard battle cries coming from both directions, and I heard someone call out, "Oh, crap!" but I didn't know who it was.

I watched him, and we half-circled. Half-mooned? No, that sounded wrong. But I didn't know what to call it. In order for us both to stick on our respective sides, we had to only stalk each other in half circles instead of fully circling each other.

I faked a throw and he flinched to his left. I faked again and he ducked, but I pulled back right away and chucked it. He sprawled to the ground, and it sailed harmlessly over head, bounced off the ground, and was picked up by Adrian.

I smirked as he wound up and threw it at me, but jumped to the side and yelled out, "Oh, Jeez!" when it nearly hit me.

Mia grabbed the ball and hurled it at Eddie. He dodged that one, only to be hit by the one Lissa had been saving for a special occasion.

"Yeah!" I cried, running over and high-fiving her.

I had to leap over a flying ball as I raced to get another one, so I stopped and picked that one up too. I handed it to Lissa, and saw that Mia had one of her own.

"On three, we throw them at Adrian," I whispered, while subtly shaking my head and making a D with my fingers. "Ready? One, two . . . three!"

We turned from where Adrian had been cowering under our gaze to where Dimitri stood with a ball on the right. Mia and Lissa threw their balls simultaneously, but I waited a half second to get an idea of which way he was going to go. He ducked and dodged to his left again, throwing his ball. I hurled mine at him, hitting him right in the shoulder at the same time as Mia was hit by the ball he'd thrown.

"Haha!" I yelled victoriously.

Mia grumbled as she went to go sit on the sidelines.

Dimitri walked up to me. "Nice throw."

"Thanks, Comrade," I returned. "But this isn't going to work."

"What isn't?" he asked innocently.

"Trying to distract me."

"That's funny," he said. "Because I think it just did."

I blinked and felt a ball smack into my arm. "Fuck." I looked at Lissa and smiled apologetically. "Guess you're on your own."

She whined. "How am I supposed to take out Eddie and Adrian all by myself?"

I shrugged. "Try your best."

She sighed and picked up another ball.

"And Liss?" She looked at me. "Don't be afraid to play dirty." I smiled wickedly at her, and she returned it.

"Oh, Edward!" she sang.

Eddie frowned. "That's not even my real name."

She shrugged. "Whatever. But, stay still." Her voice was laced with compulsion. I watched his eyes glazed over as he stared into hers. Big mistake, buddy.

She threw the ball, releasing the compulsion just late enough that he recognized that he'd been hit, but not so soon that he could move out of the way.

"Yes!" she cheered. Until a purple ball whizzed an inch from her ear. She jerked her head away. "Crap! Adrian!"

"Get him, Liss!" I called, becoming her personal cheerleader. "You can do it! I believe in you! Insert other nonsensical motivational things here!" She glanced over at me with a puzzled look. "Whatever! Don't look at me! Focus! Adrian! Ball chucking! Remember?"

She shook her head and danced around her half of the gym, collecting the four balls that had rolled to their death after being thrown at her. Okay, so I'm a bit dramatic. Sue me.

"Are you ready Adrian?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Um . . . no."

"Too bad," she sang, and one by one threw the balls at him. The first one he dodged to the right, and the second he avoided by dropping to the ground, but he couldn't get away from the third. Or the fourth, for that matter. They hit him square in the back, and he held up his hands in surrender.

"I give! Mercy! Uncle!" he cried.

"Yes!" Mia and I shouted, jumping up and hugging each other and Lissa and bouncing up and down like a demented Energizer bunny.

"You cheated!" Eddie called, pointing at Lissa.

"Did not," she responded.

"Did too!"

"Whatever it takes, baby," I told him, quoting one of our instructors. He just glared at me. "Anyway, children, it's time for dinner," I said, looking at my wrist. Not that I was wearing a watch, but the thought was there.

"Yum. Food," Eddie said, closing his eyes and smiling.

"Come on guys, let's go. We can play some more games later." I tried hard not to think about tomorrow. Because come tomorrow, I would have to spend time with Christian. _Christian_. Ew.

I pushed that to the back of my mind and focused on the love of my life. Food. Yeah, you thought I was going to say Dimitri, didn't you? Nope, right now food took precedence.

_***Yay! New chapter! Review! Wow there were a lot of exclamation points in this chapter! And I know this one was kind of short, but I think I once told someone I was going to include potato dodge ball in a story after it came up in a conversation — don't ask — so I wanted to put it in there.***_


	9. Chapter 9: Running Man

_***Shout out to XxRawringRosesxX and soccerflower95 for the game ideas! Thanks so much! And I'm using soccerflower95's idea for this chapter. Remember, I always want your game ideas! Oh, and sorry for the wait for this chapter. Semester one exams done, and semester two has sooo much homework. Blech. But enough of this! Also, sorry for the excessive kareoke, but I thought a danse party felt suddenly appropriate, since I was listening to music for once.***_

"I love bacon," I sighed, staring at the food adoringly.

Christian looked from me to my plate. "How did you manage to get bacon for dinner? They don't even serve it at this hour."

I winked at him. "I have connections."

Dimitri slid down next to me, carrying a plate from the staff dining room. Beer battered fish and french fries. The second he set the plate on the table, I nabbed a fry.

"Where did that come from? That looks much better than this," Adrian said, gesturing to his hamburger.

"He can probably smell the beer from there," Mia sniggered.

"What's wrong with a hamburger?" I asked, personally offended for the dig at the food. I picked up my own burger and turned my bacon-adoration onto it before biting into it.

"Nothing," he answered quickly. "Just sometimes you want something a little more _passade_."

"_Passade?_ Is that even English?"

"Nope. It's French."

"You know French?" Lissa asked, looking surprised.

"Nah, not really. Just a couple words. _Pour mes femmes spéciales_._"_

I shrugged and went back to my bacon, munching happily. Dimitri cut into his fish, and I stole a piece.

"You know, you just have to ask," he told me.

"Where would be the fun in that? It's all about the conquest." I saluted with the hunk of fish, then dropped it into my mouth.

"She's finally adopted my philosophy. I'm so proud," Adrian mooned.

I rolled my eyes and dug into my food. As usual, I inhaled it, and I was done before everyone except Eddie, who had spent the time I'd used talking devouring his food.

I used my left over time to scavenge from other people's plates. Dimitri was a prime target since he was right next to me and didn't get _too_ mad. Adrian was on my other side, and ended up offering me half of his burger. Christian was across the table — a bit of a reach, but still doable. He tended to try to stab me with his fork whenever my hand got close to his plate, which made the game all the more fun. By the time everyone else finished, I was satisfactorily full.

We left and headed back to Lissa's room, where we sat in a circle and tried to come up with our final game for the day.

"I have one. I don't really have a name for it, but I'm going to call it Running Man," Lissa said.

"Alright, let's hear it," Eddie put in.

"Okay. So it's kind of like hide and seek, except more advanced. There are two teams, an offensive team and a defensive team. All of the people on the offensive team tie bells into their shoelaces, so they make noise whenever they move. The defense all have scarves or something tucked into their back belt loops or into their pants, and the offense have to try to rip them out. If the scarf gets ripped out, that player is out. After a set amount of time, like ten or fifteen minutes, the teams switch. I think it'd be fun to play outside in the dark," she added.

Eddie nodded. "Sounds like fun. Do you have enough scarves for each of us? Well, half of us, since the game requires two teams."

She nodded. "I'm sure I do."

Adrian raised an eyebrow. "That's a little scary, Liss."

She smiled over her shoulder as she headed to her closet. "But useful," she pointed out.

"How often do you need four or more scarves?" Dimitri asked, face puzzled.

"You'd be surprised how often they can come in handy," I whispered in his ear. He flushed.

"Now how about some bells?" Mia asked.

"Don't we have a fashion class here?" Lissa asked.

I frowned. "I think so. And they would probably would have bells."

"Well, it seems we're off on a mission!" Adrian cried.

"Yeah. . . . Why don't you and Eddie go to find the fashion room and bring us back some bells?"

He saluted to me and they left.

"Okay, I think a spontaneous dance party is in order!" I called, already hitting shuffle on Lissa's iPod. P!nk's new song Slut Like You came on. Dimitri raised an eyebrow at Lissa, but was distracted when I started gyrating my hips in time with the music. What fantastic a word is gyrating?

"_I'm not a slut, I just love love!"_ I called out in time with P!nk.

Hip pop, hip pop, hip pop. I made my moves up on the spot, thoroughly enjoying myself as I danced somewhat seductively around Dimitri and the rest of the room. But mostly Dimitri. He was back to being the love of my life, now that the food was gone. Especially the bacon. But if bacon came back, I was afraid it might take precedence.

"_Tell me somethin' new." _I pointed to random places around the room. If people happened to be in that spot, well then they did.

"'_Cause I've heard this." _I patted my chest, then exploded my hands outward.

"_Okay, I'll fuck you, a little taste test."_ Okay, so Lissa had the clean version that song, which didn't say fuck, but I helpfully filled in the gap.

I strutted up to Dimitri and reached up to grab his collar. _"You'll be my little friend, you'll be my little friend, you'll be my little friend!" _I traced my finger down his chest. Fortunately the atmosphere was light enough that no one thought too much of the motion.

"_And they think we fall in love, but that's not it." _I wasn't looking at Dimitri anymore. I'd just thrown my face to the sky, so no one would mistakenly believe I was talking about them. See, sometimes I take precautions.

"_Just wanna get some, ain't that some shit." _I dropped into a crouch and pushed myself back up. _"You'll be my little friend, you'll be my little friend, you'll be my little friend!"_

Eddie and Adrian chose that moment to make their reentrance. They stood puzzled in the doorway for a few moments before Mia shut off the music. Then they stepped in and showed us the eight mini bells they were carrying. Perfect for attaching to shoelaces.

"Alright, now we need to pick teams," Christian said.

"I vote you and I team captains!" I cried, shooting my hand in the air as if that was going to stake my claim more than just saying it.

No one had a problem with that, so Christian and I now had the task of deciding who would chose first.

"You can use one of my dice, if you want," Adrian offered.

"Nah, that's okay. I have something in mind," I responded with a wink. Then I turned to Christian. "I challenge you to a dual of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock!"

He smiled. "You're on."

We jutted out our fists, pumping them in time as we called out, "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock!"

I shot lizard, he shot Spock, as I'd known he would. "My lizard poisons your Spock!" I crowed.

I turned to where our friends had lined themselves up, prepared to build the best team. Thanks to that miniature victory, I would have four people on my team, and he would only have three. "Dimitri!" I called out. He stepped forward beside me with a smile.

I'd been trying to decide if I thought Christian would choose Eddie and have a stronger team, or pick Lissa and be a sweet boyfriend. He seemed to be wavering over the decision too, but in the end had to pick Lissa.

I added Eddie and Mia to my team, and Christian took Adrian, much to Adrian's unhappiness. Mine too, to a lesser extent. Adrian would probably have been more valuable than Mia, but we take what we can get.

We decided my team would be offence first. The other team slid Lissa's scarves into the belt loops of their pants while I knelt down and fastened the bells to my bootlaces, grimacing at the tinkle they made with my every move. It went against every stealth instinct I had. And believe you me, I had a lot of stealth instincts.

We all set our phones to have an alarm go off in ten minutes, so we'd know when to stop playing.

"Alright, so anyone on Christian's team who gets tagged should come back here, since they'll be out," I said, watching everyone nod along. "Alright. We'll give you a thirty second head start. On your marks, get set, go!"

The defense team took off, launching themselves out the door. I sat back, watching the seconds tick themselves by on my phone's screen. I sidled up to the door, so I could bolt the instant the thirty seconds were up. And bolt I did.

I took off running down the hall, hurling myself down the two flights of stairs then out the door. It certainly was dark now, making it harder to follow their tracks in the snow. They fact that it was actively dropping fresh white flakes into my hair didn't help either, nor did the newly ferocious wind. I would have thought that was one of the Moroi using magic, but since they had two spirit users and a fire user on their team, it didn't seem likely.

I pulled myself up short just outside the dorm. My other team members met me at a much more leisurely pace, and we huddled in a group, deciding who would go after whom.

"Alright, Mia and Eddie, you go after Adrian." I really didn't trust Dimitri trying to chase down Adrian, and I didn't trust myself not to tackle him. "Dimitri, you take Christian, and I've got Lissa. Bacon on three. One, two, three, bacon!" Okay, so I was the only one who called bacon, but it was kinda fun.

Anyway, now that I'd thoroughly gotten my bacon fix out of my system for a couple weeks, I was able to begin my search for my best friend. It was especially fun, because she was blocking me from using the bond.

I figured it might help if I treated it like I was hunting a strigoi, and tried pretending Lissa had been kidnaped for a bit. I stopped when I realized that I was on the verge of having a panic attack from the thought.

I prowled the snowy landscape, feeling like a panther, while simultaneously probing the bond for a slip.

Since I didn't really have much to go on, I chose a direction more or less at random. I tried to think of where she thought I wouldn't look for her. I didn't make much progress with that, because obviously she would choose a place I wouldn't think to look.

Eddie and Mia had headed south, into the woods surrounding the campus. Dimitri had gone to check the other parts of the secondary campus, so I turned myself to the elementary campus.

I'd never _really_ realized just how _big_ the academy was. I wasn't very good in geography — or math — but I had to think it was at least a mile across. In diameter, I think. Look at me, actually using math! My teachers would be so proud.

I was scanning the area back and forth when I heard what sounded like a cross between a high-pitched shriek and a man's scream. I instinctively started to sprint in that direction when I realized it was likely Adrian. It had come from the direction Eddie and Mia had gone.

It still took effort to pull myself back around to my original direction. But, as my gaze swept over the snow, I noticed a half filled in footprint. Adrenaline filled me, taking the place of the biting cold of the evening.

I stalked towards it, never taking my eyes off it, fearing it would disappear. It hadn't when I got there, though, so I figured it was safe.

I bent down to examine it, sending a gust of crisp, cold air right up my nose. My snort to get the snow out nearly covered the print, but I turned my head just in time. It was headed a little to the left of the direction I'd been facing, which meant the owner of this foot — provided it actually was one of my friends and not just a random trail that was leading me astray — had gone in a strange circular path, probably trying to throw a pursuer of their trail. And yet I manage to just stumble on it. How fantastic for me?

Now that I was looking in the right direction, I could make out a trail. I followed along, feeling a little like Nancy Drew. Not that I had every actually read anything about Nancy Drew, but Lissa had and had told me all about her.

The footsteps lead me through the elementary campus, then circled around through the woods for a bit before coming back into campus and then disappearing entirely. I followed them as fast as I could and still make them out from the rest of the bland white landscape.

I stood at the dead end staring around myself like a moron. So much for being Nancy Drew.

Suddenly I remembered something I'd seen Lissa read through the bond. You'd be surprised how much I picked up from her love of reading, no matter how hard I tried to tune it out. Sometimes, though, it helped me. You'd be surprised just how many fiction authors had great ideas when it came to hunting someone down and doing dangerous, illegal things.

About a year ago, she'd been reading Stacia Kane's Unholy Ghosts. Don't ask me why I remember the author. I just do. Lissa tends to catalog that kind of thing in her mind, and sometimes it carries over to me. But one line stuck with me. "Nobody ever looks up."

Pursing my lips, I raised my eyes to the roofs of the buildings.

I heard a muffled, "Oh, shoot," and saw a flash of blonde hair as Lissa scrambled out of my line of sight. I let out a bark of anticipatory laughter. "You're mine now!"

I darted to the side of the building, where scrambling up the wall was surprisingly more easy than I'd thought it would be. Seconds later I was standing forty feet in the air, feeling grateful that I wasn't afraid of heights, and chasing after my best friend and the pink scarf with purple hearts hanging from the back of her jeans.

It didn't take me long to catch up to her, and I lunged forward, hand just closing over one side of the fabric as both Lissa's and my phone buzzed, telling us the round was over. We both looked at my hand. "Does that mean you're out, or no?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so. The rules say you have to pull it out of the loop. That's still in the loop."

I frowned. "I don't remember it saying that."

"Well, it didn't say so in so many words, but that was the idea," she said with an exasperated sigh.

I shrugged. "Okay. You win. Now let's get out of this freaking cold!" I hugged myself, trying to conserve body heat. I could smell the pine from some of the trees despite it being so cold out. Or maybe that was just the smell of my nostrils freezing together.

We hurried back to her room together, me shortening my stride to match hers. Even though she had longer legs than I did, I naturally walked faster than she did.

We were the last ones to get back. "So, how did everyone do?" I asked upon entering the room.

Adrian, lounging on Lissa's bed, lazily waved his hand in the air. "I was caught."

Christian added, "Me too," although he looked a lot less happy about it.

Lissa smiled proudly. "I was not."

Heads turned to stare at me, aghast. "What? I'm good at fighting and being bad-ass. No one ever said I was good at tracking people." I crossed my arms indignantly.

Christian shrugged. "Okay. Now time to switch sides."

I unfastened my bell and handed it to Lissa, who gave me her scarf. I frowned at the pink and glanced over to her bed, where the extra scarf was still laying. It was light blue, definitely better than pink. As soon as Lissa bent over to fasten on the bell, I handed the pink fabric to Mia and scarfed (no pun intended) the blue one off the bed and stuck it through the belt loop in the back of my jeans.

We reset our phones for ten minutes. "Ready, set, go!" Adrian declared. The new defense (that would be my team) raced out the door. When we got out the main door, I looked over my shoulder at Dimitri and smiled foxily, before darting off on my own way. I caught him heading towards the forest out of the corner of my eye. I think that's where he feels most at home.

I headed where I knew no one would ever think to look for me: the administrative building. I ducked my way through the door, dodging the guardians and Moroi inside and walked casually up the stairs, trying to look like I belonged. I figured it had been more than thirty seconds now, so I would have to worry about being caught.

I made it to the second floor, and headed right into an office. The nameplate said Fiona Marquis, but the _who _didn't matter, just the window, which was where I went right away, sliding it open and slipping out onto the tree limb just outside. What? You didn't think I was actually just going to stay there, did you?

I climbed across the tree to the next building, which conveniently had a window that lined right up with where I crouched. I jimmied it open and looked down the twenty feet to the ground. I hadn't quite gotten over that near fall from a four story building this morning — was that really only this morning? — and had no desire to repeat it any time soon, especially since Dimitri wasn't here to catch me this time. But, never one to let my own silly trepidation stop me, I leaped.

The entire second that I was in the air, adrenaline flowed. Then my hands caught hold of the window ledge, and my breath left me as my stomach hit the brick wall. "Ugh," I groaned. "That hurt. Not a fan of the tree jumping today." I hauled myself up and into the room.

I only had to get down to the main floor now. In fact, I was directly above where I wanted to be. I shut the window and snuck out of the room, heading down the stairs that were conveniently close to the file room's door, then went into the second door on my left.

Now this was where I wanted to be.

I was in Kirova's office.

Fortunately she wasn't in there with me. That had been the one variable I hadn't been positive of. I walked farther in and turned around, then stared around the room with my hands on my hips. "Alright. Objective: Get Into Kirova's Office Without Anyone Noticing. Status: Complete."

I threw myself into her wheely chair and spun around a few times, feeling powerful behind her imposing desk. I stopped myself and pulled out my phone, seeing that I was somehow down to only four minutes.

"Oh well, that's time enough for some snooping," I muttered to myself. I stood and walked to the file cabinets, tugging the top drawer open. Thankfully it wasn't locked. "Haddock, Hadley, Hafer, Haifa, blah, blah, blah, Hamper. We have someone here with the last name Hamper? That's cool." I ran my fingers over the files as I read the names. In retrospect, I could have just looked for the thickest one, but my head is about as thick as my file, so I didn't think of that. "Hamstra, hmm, no Hamster, but that would have been cool, Handcock, awesome name, Hannagan, Hanson, getting closer, Harada, Harbuck, wow we have a lot of kids at this school, Harder" — I giggled — "Harper, Harris, Harrison, Hagot, well that's out of order, Harvey, Hatchcock" — another giggle — "Harder Hatchcock" — outright laughter when I put them together — "Hathaway!" I pulled my file from the patch and flipped it open while simultaneously setting it on the desk. I was flipping through my file, admiring the records of good times, when my phone buzzed. I nearly jumped out of the seat, and sent myself spinning.

I glanced at the file in my hand, which I was only a third of the way through, then at the filing cabinet. "Nah," I told myself. No way was I putting that back. I even went so far as to look for the files of my friends, which I found and also confiscated, along with that of a D. Belikov, a P. Harder, and an M. Hatchcock, just for fun. Then I raced back to Lissa's room, almost forgetting to stay undercover as I did.

I burst through the door, shouting out, "I win!" A half-dozen heads turned to look at me. I dropped my fist-pumping hands and stared back at them. We sat frozen like that for a few seconds, before Eddie said, "So I guess you weren't caught."

I smiled and came in, sitting next to Lissa on the floor. "I think we won," I said with a wink.

Christian raised his eyebrows. "Actually it was a draw."

"Oh. Well that's less fun. But guess what I found!" I cheered, pulling the files out from inside my coat. "Our records!" I handed them out to each person, and we flipped them open.

Dimitri took his reluctantly. "Kirova didn't give these to you, did she?"

"Nope," I responded happily, flipping mine open and finding my place. "I was hiding in her office." There was a series of groans around the room.

Lissa's was almost blank, and so was Dimitri's, although his was more detailed than any of ours on account of him being a full-fledged guardian. Christian's was about half as thick as mine, and Mia and Eddie's were both pretty thin. I'd been surprised to see Adrian had his own file despite not actually having anything to do with the school. I'd been even more surprised to find it was almost as thick as mine.

Together we recounted old mistakes (in some people's opinions) or good times (in my opinion) until curfew meant we had to go our separate ways.

I stretched and heard the satisfying cracking of my spine. "Ah, this was a great day."

Mia smiled. "I doubt tomorrow will be as much fun for you."

It took me a minute to catch on. Then I understood. She was talking about the dare to switch boyfriends. I groaned. "Nooo! Way to ruin a perfectly good mood," I said with a pout.

She laughed and waved as she headed out the door to her own room.

"Yeah, have fun with that," Adrian told us as he left too.

I sighed. "Yeah. Fun." I smiled sadly as I stood up, tugging Dimitri with me. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Eddie. It'll be you, me and Christian for the day."

Dimitri and I left. As we walked to my dorm room, he leaned into me and murmured, "What makes you think you and Christian get Eddie? Why not Mia?"

I looked up at him. "First I'm stuck with Christian, and now you want to stick me with Mia too? How cruel."

He raised his hands in mock-surrender. "I was just asking. I take it back."

I huffed, pretending to be mad, but couldn't hold it for very long before I smiled. "Will you stay with me tonight?"

"As long as I can." He returned my smile.

I fell asleep later that night with Dimitri's arms around me. I should have been peaceful, but I couldn't stop thinking of how much time I was going to have to spend with Christian tomorrow. _Oh dear god. What have I gotten myself into?_

_***Review! That is all I have to say.***_


	10. Chapter 10: Pickup Lines

_***Sorry for the wait, but let's get this show on the road! Shout-out to JordanJas for the idea; I'll certainly be using it! And since I am,**_**this chapter might be a little more M rated and sexually focused than the others. You have been warned!**_*****_

My alarm clock buzzed at an utterly ungodly hour. I groaned and rubbed my eyes. Thursday morning. The first day of my torture.

I groaned again as I hauled myself out of bed and to the bathroom for a shower. The warm water helped prepare me for the day to come, but not much. When I stepped out, I realized I'd forgotten to bring a towel with me, and had to try to air dry myself by hopping around and contorting myself so as much skin as possible was under the hand dryers.

Content I wasn't dripping on the floor quite as much anymore, I ducked my head out into the hall to check that there was nobody out there. Luck was with me on that one, and I raced back to my room, where I finished toweling off and threw on a set of clothing.

I reached for my bag and looked at my clock. "Shit, I'm late. Oh well. Dimitri won't care. Too much, anyway."

I took my time getting to the gym. It wasn't very far, but I abused every extra second, pounding as much time out of it as I could. I was the only one out at oh-death-thirty in the evening, and there was no one hurrying me along.

"You're late, Miss Hathaway," I heard as I pushed open the doors to the gym. I frowned and looked around, searching for Stan or Kirova, because there's no way that was my Dimitri that said that to me. But my eyes found only Dimitri, and surprisingly Eddie. They sat on the floor facing each other, playing some sort of card game.

"What the hell is this?" I demanded.

Dimitri looked at me crossly. "Is that any way to address your instructor?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Um . . ."

Eddie laughed. "Seems like he's fully embraced the relationship switcheroo thing. No more Mr. Nice Dhampir for you."

"That's shit!" I exclaimed. "Just because we can't be together this week — stupid freaking dare! — doesn't mean we can't be friends."

Dimitri shrugged. "I don't know. Honestly, I can't picture how I'd act around you if we really weren't together." He paused. "Don't kiss him, okay?" he said softly, his face earnest.

I snorted. "Nothing to fear there. I don't want to be around him any more than absolutely necessary. Maybe we can be in a long distance relationship," I suggested hopefully. Eddie laughed.

"Well," Dimitri started, standing up and getting back on track, "we'd best get to work."

Training was just about what it always was, plus a little suckiness because Eddie was lounging on the ground watching me.

"You know, you could do some of this too," I said to him at one point. He just laughed at me.

As grueling as training was, it was nothing compared to what was to come after. I sat, panting and more than a little sweaty, wondering why I'd showered before coming to train, 'cause that was dumb, and trying not to think of how much of my day I'd have to spend near Christian (because I refused to think of myself as _with_ Christian) when who was to walk into the gym but my raison-d'être, the apple of my eye, the worm between my teeth, and, if he wasn't careful, the face beneath my fist.

"Pumpkin-pooh!" he called, heading toward me. When he spread his arms like he was expecting a hug, I scrambled back and away from him. Then I came up with a better idea and stood, waiting for him to come to me. He hesitated for a second, but didn't think better than to keep coming for his hug.

I smirked as he wrapped his arms around me then squealed in disgust, his black T-shirt covered in my sweat.

"Girly squeal," I teased. "What a manly beau I have."

He scrunched up his nose. "I've come to walk you to class," he told me.

"Thanks," I retorted, "but I manage to get to class every day without you to guide me." I thought a moment. "Well, almost every day."

"If I'm your boyfriend for a week, I'm going to be exactly to you as I would be to someone I actually wanted to be with. More or less. Maybe a little heavier on the _less_ side."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. If you think I'm going to be Lissa for the week, you've got another thing coming. So you might as well just scamper along to your first period."

He just crossed his arms and stood there resolutely. I huffed and headed to the change room to rinse off and uh, change, since that's what you do in a change room.

I paused before the door on the way out, casting my eyes to the ceiling. "I so don't want to do this." But I drew in a breath, pulled on my big girl panties, and stepped out to face Christian.

"Schnookims!" he cried.

I suppressed my gag reflex. "Let's get this over with."

He held out his hand to me, but I ignored it and headed for the door. Christian frowned and followed, and Eddie trailed after us both. At least flame-boy wasn't in any of my classes before lunch.

I didn't usually look forward to Advanced Guardian Combat techniques, but this morning I was extraordinarily excited. If it meant getting away from the sickly sweetness of Christian, I was game. It also meant I didn't have to see Dimitri and Lissa together, but I was stuck thinking of them for a decent period of time. Hopefully wacking something will help, I thought.

Christian left Eddie and me at the door to our class, and I was happy to see him go. I watched as he started picking at his still-sweaty shirt once he thought I wasn't looking.

"I gotta say, I think you're going about this all wrong," Eddie told me as we headed into class.

"How so?" I grumbled, already in a bad mood.

"It's like you're trying to fight a Strigoi by putting it in a cage and poking at it with one of those paper sticks they put cotton candy on. It's not gonna work. You've gotta fight a strigoi by being better than it at its own game. You have to be stronger and faster that it, more prepared."

"You realize I nearly failed English, right?"

He sighed. "You've gotta fight the fire user with fire. Beat him at his own game. If he's going to be sweet as syrup, well you're just going to have to be a Toasted Almond."

I stared blankly at him.

"It's a drink," he explained. "Amaretto, Kahlúa, cream, and ice cubes."

I made a face. "That sounds disgusting. And that's saying something, 'cause I'll drink anything."

He laughed and stepped away from me as the dhampir who was leading today's class called us to order. "Think about it," he called ominously. The laugh he followed it up with dispersed some of the creepiness.

I did think about it, all class long, and when Christian was waiting for me outside class at the end, I was ready for him.

Before he could even say anything, I ran over to him and hugged him. "Baby!"

He froze, startled, and didn't return my hug. He shook himself when I let go, though, and fell back into his roll. Damn.

He held his hand out again, and this time I took it. I fought a grimace, and managed to keep a straight face. I was impressed with myself.

We walked to my next class, and I kept up the sweet facade, though it killed me to do it. If I'd really wanted to take my acting all the way, I would have given him a peck on the lips before he left, but always at the front of my mind was what Dimitri had asked of me. Not that I could ever bring myself to kiss him anyway. Blech.

The door closed behind me for second period, and I waited thirty seconds to make sure he was gone before slipping back out the door. It wouldn't matter so much if I skipped class. It was only Stan, and I skipped his class all the time.

I sighed in relief at being free, trying to decide what to do. I settled for heading to Lissa's classroom and seeing if I could convince her to sneak out. It was near impossible, but I always got a kick out of trying.

I was surprised when I ran into Adrian in the hall. "What are you doing?" I asked him.

"Walking. Is a man not allowed to walk?" he raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

"Looking to break Lissa out of class."

He nodded approvingly. "Mind if I come along?"

I shrugged. "I really don't care."

We fell into step together, and headed silently toward Lissa's current classroom.

She was sitting ever-so-dutifully behind her desk when we showed up. I couldn't hear what the teacher was saying, but I imagined her droning on about nothing. I stood at the little window in the door, making strange faces, trying to come up with a good excuse to get her out of class.

Turns out I didn't have to. She turned around just in time to catch a particularly disturbing face of mine. She didn't react, just calmly turned back around and asked to go to the washroom. The teacher glanced at the window, and I dodged out from view.

A whole of fifteen seconds later, Lissa emerged from the multi-pocketed stomach of the academic cow. That's a nice visual right there, isn't it?

"Lissa!" I crowed cheerfully.

She grinned at me. "What are you guys doing?"

"Strolling," Adrian responded with a bob of his head.

"Sounds fun."

"It's not," I told her. "But I was coming to get you, and now I've got you, so . . . Yay!"

"We should round up the rest of the gang, maybe play a game," she suggested.

The corners of my mouth pulled up into a wide smile, and I felt a little bit like the Grinch. "That's a great idea. And I've got an idea."

* * *

><p>I crept my was through the administrative building, heading to Kirova's office. It was empty when I reached it, and I noted how she never seemed to be in her office anymore. Ah, well, all the better for me.<p>

There, sitting on a table along the wall, was the microphone for the PA system. She didn't have it sitting on her desk, of course, because that would look too garish, but she did have one in her office. Of course, there were other mics I could have used, but it's just so much more fun when I get to sneak into Kirova's office.

Naturally I knew how to use it. And I'd spent so much time in her office, listening to her drone on, that I could imitate her fairly well. Certainly well enough not to have anyone notice the difference across the intercom.

I flicked the switch that sent the sound to all the senior campus buildings, and snickered before pressing the button that would let my message be projected.

"This is Headmistress Kirova speaking. It is my decree that all senior classes shall be let out for the rest of the day. I repeat: all senior classes shall be let out for the rest of the day."

I released the button and, with a smile, snuck back out of the room. Now that everyone was free, the day was ours. Of course, it also meant I'd be subject to more time with Christian, which really sucked. But at least that way I could see Dimitri too.

Everyone had gathered in my room when I got there, as I'd had Lissa tell them to.

"Neat trick," Eddie praised.

I grinned. "You're welcome!"

"Do you want to play a game?" Christian asked in a fake deep voice, referencing the movie _Saw_. He came over to me and slung his arm across my shoulders. I fought back a cringe, and I felt Lissa's humor through the bond, with just a hint of jealousy. She didn't let the green emotion take over though. Or is green envy? Does it really matter?

"Like what?" Mia asked.

"Pickup lines!" Adrian exclaimed.

"What's that?" Lissa asked. Ah, the naivete. So adorable.

"It's where you go around in the circle, and everyone says a pickup line until you run out, and when you do, you're out. And you can't repeat the same one as someone else," I explained.

"And the more sexual it is, the better." Adrian smirked.

We sat in a circle, and decided Adrian would go first, since it was his game. _(A/N: here marks the beginning of the sexually explicit part.)_

"Hey, you wanna do a 68? You go down on me, I'll owe you one." Dimitri made a face, clearly not liking this game. I was kind of interested in what he would say. We'd never done the whole pickup line thing.

Lissa didn't appear to like this much more than he did, but she was next. "Uh . . . If beauty were time, you'd be eternity."

"Aw! Of course you'd say something like that," I laughed.

Dimitri's turn. Keeping with the dare, he and Lissa sat next to each other, and Christian sat next to me. Yay.

"If I received a nickel for every time I saw someone as beautiful as you, I'd have five cents," he said, staring at the floor by my feet.

Eddie. "If I flip a coin, what are my chances of getting head?" He raised his eyebrow suggestively, and we all laughed. Eddie being suggestive was less creepy or sexual, and more just hilarious.

"That's a nice shirt. Can I talk you out of it?" Christian said.

My turn. I thought a moment, trying to come up with a good one. In the end, I settled on one of my personal favorites. "My name's Rose. Just so you know what to scream."

Adrian sniggered, and Mia took her turn, completing the circle. "Nice shoes, wanna fuck?"

"Nice. To the point," Adrian mused before going again. "Do you work at Subway? Because you just gave me a footlong."

Lissa and Dimitri were both flame red by now. "Do you have a map? I'm getting lost in your eyes," Lissa said awkwardly. I knew she would only be good for a couple more rounds before she ran out.

"Fascinating. I've been looking at your eyes all night long, 'cause I've never seen such dark eyes with so much light in them," Dimitri said. He was looking at my foot this time. Listening to him was actually really sweet. I might have to get him to play this one on one with me sometime.

Eddie went. "There will only be 7 planets left after I destroy Uranus." It was cute. He was trying so hard to be creepy, and it just wasn't working.

"Forget that! Playing doctor is for kids! Let's play gynecologist." Christian wasn't as racy as the rest of us, but he wasn't as nice as Dimitri and Lissa.

My go. Oh yeah! "If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put 'U' between 'F' and 'CK.'"

"Fuck me if I am wrong, but haven't we met before?" Mia asked no one.

Back to Adrian. "My dick just died. Would you mind if I buried it in your ass?"

Lissa's face twitched as she thought. "There isn't a word in the dictionary for how good you look." Yep, that certainly sounded like Lissa. Her thoughts reached me, and she wracked her brain for another line.

"You're so beautiful that you made me forget my pickup line." Dimitri's eyes were up at my knee now.

"I hope you like dragons, because I'll be dragon my balls across your face tonight." Eddie winked, and I couldn't help laughing.

"Excuse me, but would you like an orally stimulated orgasm?" Christian grinned.

"You are so selfish! You're going to have that body the rest of your life and I just want it for one night," I said.

"Hey cutie, wanna go halves on a baby?" Mia smirked.

Adrian again. I got the feeling he could go about as long as I could. I knew it would be down to him and me in the end. The rest of this was really just posturing. "That shirt's very becoming on you. If I were on you, I'd be coming too."

Lissa shook her head. "I'm out." She stood and moved to sit on my bed.

Dimitri stayed in, despite what I'd expected. He was looking at my hip now. "You must be a hell of a thief because you stole my heart from across the room."

Eddie also seemed to be running out, but he found one. "Your face reminds me of a wrench, every time I think of it my nuts tighten up."

Christian was still in. "Someone vacuum my lap, I think this girl needs a clean place to sit."

Naturally, I still had miles of them in my mind. Unfortunately, most of them were ones to be said by guys. When I ran out of the female ones, I'd have to start using them. "Just remember: To you, I am a virgin."

"I love my bed but I'd rather be in yours," Mia said.

"You're like my little toe, because I'm going to bang you on every piece of furniture in my home," Adrian continued.

Dimitri met my eyes. "Do you know what I did last night? I looked up at the stars, and matched each one with a reason why I love you." There was a pause, where no one quite knew how to respond. My heart swelled. "I'm out now." He moved to lounge on my bed.

Christian finally broke the reverent silence, saying, "Don't you talk to my girlfriend like that!" There wasn't much conviction behind the statement, showing how much he didn't care about me that way. He was just trying to defuse the situation.

We got back to the game, and Eddie seemed back in the right mode, able to think up another line. "Hey baby, I think you just made my two by four into a four by eight."

"I'll give you a nickel if you tickle my pickle," Christian recited.

"I had a wet dream about you last night. Would you like to make it a reality?" I voiced.

"I know a great way to burn off the calories in that pastry you just ate," Mia announced.

"I'm no weather man, but you can expect more than a few inches tonight," Adrian went.

"Are you the lottery lady on TV, because I'm picturing you holding up my ball," Eddie said.

"I'm out," Christian said sadly, backing away from the circle and going to sit next to Lissa.

"And then there were four," I said ominously, before continuing with my line. "The things I would do if I got a few roofies in you."

Mia dropped out that turn too, and Adrian took his turn. "Excuse me, I am about to go masturbate and needed a name to go with the face."

"Damn girl I'd love to kiss those beautiful, luscious lips. And the ones on your face," Eddie said.

"I'm peanut butter, you're jelly, let's have sex," I told the room.

"The word of the day is 'legs.' Let's go back to my place and spread the word," Adrian articulated. That's right, I used the word articulated. Not really sure what it means, but I used it.

Eddie bowed dramatically and mockingly to us. "You are the kings. Er, king and queen. Whatever. I can't compete." And with that, he dropped out, leaving just Adrian and me. As I'd thought.

"They say sex is a killer... Do you want to die happy?" I started.

"There are 265 bones in the human body. How would you like one more?" he rebuked.

"That outfit would look great in a crumpled heap next to my bed."

"We're out of bleach. Do you want to go in the janitor's closet and make out?"

"Hey baby there's a party in my pants and you are invited!"

"With great penis, comes great responsibility," he responded.

"This may seem corny, but you make me really horny."

"If you're feeling down, I can fill you up."

"I bet my tongue can beat up your tongue." I grinned.

"I bet I'd let you." A toothy smile of his own took over his face, showing a flash of the fangs that he usually kept very well hidden, like all Moroi.

I pointed at him. "That's not a pickup line! I win!" I crowed.

"That could so be a pickup line," he argued.

"Really? Would you honestly walk up to a girl and randomly say 'I bet I'd let you?'"

"Maybe." He shrugged.

Mia laughed. "As if! Rose totally wins."

I grinned wider. "Oh yeah."

"Well, we still have time before lunch, thanks to Rose's stunt, so we could play another game," Eddie suggested.

"Where is Kirova today, anyway?" I asked, looking to Dimitri.

"She went into town secretly. Next to nobody knows. You're very lucky. Any other day would have undoubtably gotten you detention," he told me.

I shrugged. "Meh. Anyway, didn't Eddie say something about another game?"


End file.
